Showing slow and fast processing with an illusion

What is it about?

Visual perception is not instantaneous; rather it builds up over time, and this affects how we respond to what we see. In this study, we demonstrate this using the Ebbinghaus illusion, where a central circle looks different depending on the size of the surrounding circles. Slow responses to the illusion show its typical effect, but fast responses show the opposite effect. We argue that this follows from an early perception of the "global gist" (or general picture), only later followed by all the details. This illustrates how much our visual perception depends on how fast we respond to our environment.

Featured Image

Photo by Adrien Converse on Unsplash

Photo by Adrien Converse on Unsplash

Why is it important?

In our daily life we're typically not aware of how much our visual perception depends on time. We can see a lot already in just a split second but what we see might be strikingly different from what it looks like when we're studying it for just a little bit longer.

Perspectives

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I collected the data for this paper during my PhD and I still remember the moment when we finally understood our findings and it all came together with the "global gist" hypothesis.

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