Comments on: The illusion of time: Perceiving the effect before the cause

By: JayKay

JayKay — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:11:25 +0000

Do you get all edgy when you try these things? I do. My body doesn’t want to ‘go there’.

By: Ms G

Ms G — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:14:28 +0000

Keep being focussed on the green spot is “hard”, especially as you do notice the yellow spots disappear … so you keep seeing them .. at least, part of you “keeps being focussed on them, even if you stare to the midst(otherwise you could not see them disappear).. you notice it disappears .. and appear … in no specific order .. at times all three .. and then just one .. just 2 .. etc.

A finger close up to your eyes .. and you will see two … hahaha … Ofcourse that did not work for you over there .. you stared at the finger .. cross eyed .. look behind ..

By: bluecat

bluecat — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:08:11 +0000

A dyslexic friend “hears” the numbers in a sequence (say a telephone number) in a different order from the order in which they are said. Which appears to mean that he hears certain numbers before they have been said!

Actually I think that’s just that they are processed at different speeds, so that a fast processed number “registers” with him sooner than a slow processed number does, to the extent that it seems to come before it.

I wonder if anyone has similar experiences or if there’s research being done?

By: Siobhán

Siobhán — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 01:06:04 +0000

Bloomin’ brilliant!! Interesting article as well!

By: Burntbroccoli

Burntbroccoli — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:44:55 +0000

If you read the whole article it does make sense. Interesting stuff.

By: Anders

Anders — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:42:15 +0000

@David : It shows that if you focus your eyes on one spot, even objects closely around it may not be picked up by the viewer. Consider driving a vehicle and only focus on the car in front. You’ll miss the biker filtering between cars (as you’re not paying attention to your mirrors), the woman with the pram at the pedestrian crossing, someone running towards you from your side (periferal vision “turned off” as your only focusing straight ahead) etc. etc. etc.

Put another way, focus on one spot and your brain discards information of “irrelevant” information. In this case, the yellow dots. Your brain will focus on the green dot and what movements are going on near it. Your tracking green dot PLUS the “moving mesh”. The stationary yellow dots then are irrelevant. This is a remnant from the days humans were hunters focusing on their prey.

By: Grax

Grax — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:45:44 +0000

Did anyone else gel the yellow dots flashing randomly?

By: Ralf

Ralf — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:38:38 +0000

That was awsome, so was the blindspottest page, tried this before with a pen after watching a dawkins interview but never got it to work really. I thought maybe im the first without a blindspot! Guess not =(

By: Tim

Tim — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:55:25 +0000

A bit like having aura when suffering from a migraine.

By: jaybravo

jaybravo — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:44:43 +0000

yeah that’s a nice illusion but how does it illustrate the point in the blog? I don’t get it. Maybe it just needs more explanation