| Reviewed: |
Jul 09, 2002 by Psychology |
| Overview: |
The study of illusions provides unique insights into how our brains construct
normal, everyday perceptual experience. The Poggendorff illusion falls into the
class of distortion illusions. This illusion will distort your perception of
continuity--specifically, your perception of a straight line. The activity
begins with a few illustrations of the Poggendorff illusion and it's variants.
This is followed by an interactive activity in which the student can manipulate
the objects that comprise the illusion. Finally, there is a brief (5 minutes)
experiment, the results of which reveal the magnitude of judgment error.
Attention is given to clarify the independent variable and the experimental
design.
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| Learning Goals: |
The goal of this website is to provide students with an understanding of
distortion-based visual illusions. This activity leads to a better
understanding of how humans organize and interpret certain kinds of visual
information
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| Target Student Population: |
Undergraduate Psychology students.
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| Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills: |
College-level reading ability required.
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| Type of Material: |
A text-based description and a java applet experiment.
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| Recommended Uses: |
This activity provides an interesting and compelling introduction to one type of
visual illusions. It is recommended as an ancillary activity to a more
thorough discussion of the topic.
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| Technical Requirements: |
Monitor setting is relevant. Students select their monitor setting prior to
beginning the experiment.
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