full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Al Seckel: Visual illusions that show how we (mis)think

Unscramble the Blue Letters


And we can violate your expectations in a whole variety of ways about representation, about shape, about coolr and so forth and it's very primal. And it's an interesting question to ponder, why these things — we find these things joyful. Why would we find them joyful? So, here's something that leoinl did a while ago. I like these sort of little things like this.

Again, this is not an optical trick. This is what you would see. In other words, it's not a camera cut. It's a perceptual trick. OK. We can violate your expectations about spahe. We can violate your ecioeatxtpns on representation — what an image represents. What do you see here? How many of you here see dolphins? Raise your hand if you see dolphins. OK, those people who raised their hands, afterwards, the rest of the audience, go talk to them, all right? Actually, this is the best example of pimnirg by experience that I know. If you are a child under the age of 10 who haven't been ruined yet, you will look at this image and see dolphins. Now, some of you atdlus here are saying, "What dolphins? What dolphins?" But in fact, if you resveerd the figure ground — in other words, the dark areas here — I forgot to ask for a peinotr — but if you reverse it, you'll see a whole seeirs of little dolphins. By the way, if you're also a student at CalTech — they also tend to just see the dolphins. It's based on encriepexe.

Open Cloze


And we can violate your expectations in a whole variety of ways about representation, about shape, about _____ and so forth and it's very primal. And it's an interesting question to ponder, why these things — we find these things joyful. Why would we find them joyful? So, here's something that ______ did a while ago. I like these sort of little things like this.

Again, this is not an optical trick. This is what you would see. In other words, it's not a camera cut. It's a perceptual trick. OK. We can violate your expectations about _____. We can violate your ____________ on representation — what an image represents. What do you see here? How many of you here see dolphins? Raise your hand if you see dolphins. OK, those people who raised their hands, afterwards, the rest of the audience, go talk to them, all right? Actually, this is the best example of _______ by experience that I know. If you are a child under the age of 10 who haven't been ruined yet, you will look at this image and see dolphins. Now, some of you ______ here are saying, "What dolphins? What dolphins?" But in fact, if you ________ the figure ground — in other words, the dark areas here — I forgot to ask for a _______ — but if you reverse it, you'll see a whole ______ of little dolphins. By the way, if you're also a student at CalTech — they also tend to just see the dolphins. It's based on __________.

Solution


  1. adults
  2. series
  3. reversed
  4. lionel
  5. pointer
  6. shape
  7. experience
  8. color
  9. expectations
  10. priming

Original Text


And we can violate your expectations in a whole variety of ways about representation, about shape, about color and so forth and it's very primal. And it's an interesting question to ponder, why these things — we find these things joyful. Why would we find them joyful? So, here's something that Lionel did a while ago. I like these sort of little things like this.

Again, this is not an optical trick. This is what you would see. In other words, it's not a camera cut. It's a perceptual trick. OK. We can violate your expectations about shape. We can violate your expectations on representation — what an image represents. What do you see here? How many of you here see dolphins? Raise your hand if you see dolphins. OK, those people who raised their hands, afterwards, the rest of the audience, go talk to them, all right? Actually, this is the best example of priming by experience that I know. If you are a child under the age of 10 who haven't been ruined yet, you will look at this image and see dolphins. Now, some of you adults here are saying, "What dolphins? What dolphins?" But in fact, if you reversed the figure ground — in other words, the dark areas here — I forgot to ask for a pointer — but if you reverse it, you'll see a whole series of little dolphins. By the way, if you're also a student at CalTech — they also tend to just see the dolphins. It's based on experience.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
static image 2
completely static 2
table tops 2


Important Words


  1. adults
  2. age
  3. areas
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  5. based
  6. caltech
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  8. child
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  25. lionel
  26. optical
  27. people
  28. perceptual
  29. pointer
  30. ponder
  31. primal
  32. priming
  33. question
  34. raise
  35. raised
  36. representation
  37. represents
  38. rest
  39. reverse
  40. reversed
  41. ruined
  42. series
  43. shape
  44. sort
  45. student
  46. talk
  47. tend
  48. trick
  49. variety
  50. violate
  51. ways
  52. words