ILLUSIONS

MADE BY ZAHABIA KAPASI 11TH GRADE, CBSE

 What are illusions?
An illusion is an inaccurate perception of a
stimulus. The term is also broadly used to
refer to inaccurate beliefs or perceptions. In
scientific usage, however, an illusion is a
sensory distortion.
 Perceptual illusion
Perceptual Illusions: the misinterpretation of a real external,
sensory experience. (MeSH) The action of deceiving,
especially by appearances. An instance of the sense
perception of an external object suggesting a false belief as
to its nature.
Ex: railway tracks appear to be converging to all of us.
Some illusions are personal to everyone.
GEOMETRICAL ILLUSIONS
Any misinterpretation by the visual system of a figure made of
straight or curved lines. Examples of such illusions are the
Müller-Lyer illusion and the Zöllner illusion.
MULLER-LYER ILLUSION
The Müller-Lyer illusion is one of the most famous
optical illusions in psychology. It consists of two sticks,
one framed by closed fins and one framed by open fins.
After seeing the illusion, viewers usually estimate that
the stick with two open fins is longer, even though the
sticks are actually the same length.
APPARENT MOVEMENT ILLUSION
This illusion is experienced when some motionless pictures are
projected one after another at an appropriate rate.

This illusion is referred to as “PHI-PHENOMENON”.

When we see moving pictures in a cinema show, we are
influenced by this kind of illusion.
SOCIO-CULTURAL INFLUENCES
ON PERCEPTION
Socio-cultural factors influence our perceptions by generating differential
familiarity and salience of stimuli as well as certain habits of perception.
People living in different cultural settings have varying perceptions like
identification of objects and interpretation of depth. For example, in the
study carried out by psychologists in Africa and Europe, it was observed
that the Africans have greater susceptibility to horizontal-vertical illusions
as they live in dense forests and regularly experience verticality which
overestimated.

Europeans on the other hand, have greater susceptibility to Muller-Lyer