Visual Illusion Stumps Adults But Not Kids

Psychologist Martin Doherty of the University of Stirling in Scotland discovered that the context an image is seen in affects how accurately the viewer’s brain interprets the image, and a child’s ability to view the image accurately is not as affected as an adult’s. The test he conducted consisted of three pairs of orange circles, one of which was slightly larger than the other. As a control, he had the subjects identify which one was larger when the two circles were compared on a white background. Then he asked the subjects to identify which one was larger when the smaller circle was surrounded by large circles and the larger circle was surrounded by small circles. This made the small one look smaller and the large one look larger. He calls this “helpful context”. He also asked the subjects to identify which was larger when the small circle was surrounded by even smaller circles and the large one was surrounded by even larger circles. He calls that “misleading context”. In adults, the percentage of people that correctly identified the larger circle in the helpful context increased over the control, and the percentage that correctly identified the larger circle in the misleading context decreased over the control. In children, the percentage that correctly identified the larger circle stayed approximately equal in all three settings. This study suggests that the ability for the brain to view a scene as a whole, and not just focus in on its pieces, develops slowly.

I find this article interesting because it provides insight into how the brain develops. We are so far from understanding how our own brain works that every piece of new information we can get is a step in the right direction even if we do not yet know how all of the pieces fit together. Knowing how the brain works will allow us to be able to treat many diseases and conditions that go untreated today.

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/49882/title/Visual_illusion_stumps_adults_but_not_kids