Motion Induced Blindness- an Illusion of Disappearing Dots
Motion induced blindness is the occurrence of perceptual illusion seen in the lab, where a person observes the disappearance of stationary visual stimuli when it is masked with a moving background. The visual system causes optical illusion, which is characterized by perceptions that appear different from reality. The categorization of illusion is difficult as the underlying cause is not clear. The paper discusses motion-induced blindness as one of the optical illusion. The illustration of disappearing dots illusion shows how our mind is influenced by moving objects.
The optical illusion is experienced when a person sees something which differs from the real object. There are many optical illusions that include motion-induced blindness. Lilac chaser can be used as an example to illustrate motion-induced blindness. Lilac chaser entails twelve lilac-colored disks organized in a circle around a small black cross positioned in the center of a grey background. The viewer sees the arrangement of lilac-colored dots on a circle around the center of the attention. Different things are seen when the viewer stares at the focal point. At first, the viewer will observe space moving around the circle, but after about ten seconds, a green disc is seen moving throughout the circle. Prolong observation will lead to the lilac color’s disappearance, and only green disks will be seen by the viewer running around the ring.
The cause of motion-induced blindness is when the focus attention of the brain is influenced by changing image. The Lilac disks appear to be moving around the circle because when something is seen in a particular spot, then it is observe in a slightly different position we perceive movement. The observation of grey disks is because when a color is dispensed in a visual field for a long time, it results in an afterimage (Cherry, 2018). The lilac disk’s disappearance illustrates fading seen when blurred objects vanish while we focus on a particular spot.
In conclusion, motion-induced blindness discloses that our brains use mental models in processing reality. Motion-induced blindness is seen to occur as a result of the way information is processed by our mind.
Reference
Cherry, K. (2018). The lilac chaser illusion. verywellmind. Retrieved from https://www.verywellmind.com/the-lilac-chaser-illusion-4111051.