“An illusion is a phenomenon in which our subjective perception doesn’t match the physical reality of the world.” (Nierenberg, 2009) In the Best Illusion of The Year Contest Arthur Shapiro and a couple of his friends submitted a project called “The Break of The Curve Ball” where their illusion was the effect of a baseball curve ball. The object of the project was to make you see how a curve ball looks at a batter’s point of view and why the abrupt shift of the pitch fool the hitter at different viewpoints with a physical effect and a perceptual puzzle all in one.
Arthur and his friends won this contest because they generated 2 different illusions. The first illusion is the rotating reversals where there were six rotating oval. When you look in the center, the six ovals are rotating counter-clockwise and when you look into your periphery the six ovals are rotating clockwise. The second illusion is the curve ball and it’s a single black and white ball moving with a blue circle near the edge. When you look directly at the spinning disk it will appear to fall vertically, then when you look at the blue circle the ball will appear to fall at a 20 degree angle. (Shapiro, 2009)
This type of illusion that Arthur created is called common fate from the Gestalt grouping laws that we learned in lesson 3 of perception. The reason why it’s common fate is because it’s based on movement like the hidden bird illusion. The object’s such as the rotating balls move together to make you perceive something at one viewpoint and then perceive something totally different from another view point.
Illusions main goal is to show you that you do not see what you think you do, but what your brain and visual system perceive and interpret. (Nierenberg, 2009) Arthur and his friends won that contest because they had the best example.
Goldstein, E. B. (2011). Introduction to Cognitive Psychology. Cognitive psychology: Connecting Mind, Research, and Everyday Experience 3rd edition. Australia: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Shapiro, A. (2009). The break of the curveball. Retrieved September 15, 2014, from http://illusionoftheyear.com/2009/the-break-of-the-curveball/
Unit, C. (2009, October 13). Optical Illusions: When Your Brain Can’t Believe Your Eyes. Retrieved September 15, 2014, from http://abcnews.go.com/Health/EyeHealth/optical-illusions-eye-brain-agree/story?id=8455573