Here we go again,

[Tim C]

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The three best visual illusions in the world were chosen at a gathering last weekend of neuroscientists and psychologists at the Naples Philharmonic Center for the Arts in Florida.

The winning entry, from a Bucknell University professor, may help explain why curve balls in baseball are so tricky to hit.

A properly thrown curve ball spins in a way that makes the air on one side move faster than on the other. This causes the ball to move along a gradual curve. From the point of view of a batter standing on home plate, though, curve balls seem to "break," or move suddenly in a new direction

This year's winning illusion, created by Arthur Shapiro of Bucknell University in Pennsylvania, may explain this phenomena. His animation shows a spinning ball that, when watched directly, moves in a straight line. When seen out of the corner of the eye, however, the spin of the ball fools the brain into thinking that the ball is curving.

So as a baseball flies towards home plate, the moment when it passes from central to peripheral vision could exaggerate the movement of the ball, causing its gradual curve to be seen as a sudden jerk.

In second place was an illusion of ghostly colors. Stare at a waterfall for a few minutes, look away, and the still world around you will appear to flow. The effect is called an "afterimage."

Scientists in Israel created a drawing of a sky with clouds that flashes red for a split second. A white dove flying across the sky seems to turn red seconds after the flash, showing that an afterimage color can linger in our vision and bleed into empty spaces.

The third place award went to a pair of photographs. One appears to be male; the other, female. Both faces actually belong to the same person, digitally altered by Richard Russell of Harvard University. The dark parts of the photograph are a little darker and light parts are a little lighter in the "female" photograph. The subtle changes suggest that one way our brains may sort out sex is to notice how strong the contrast is between features.

"Visual illusions show us where physical reality and our perceptions don't match, so we can get at what the brain is actually doing," says contest organizer Stephen MacKnik of the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix.

WORLD'S BEST VISUAL ILLUSIONS CHOSEN

This should be fun.

[dash_riprock]

Very interesting, although the author obviously never played baseball, or he would have called it the secret of the slider.

[ozzy6900]

What? No rising fastball?

[greymule]

Amazing. Proof that you should never trust your lyin' eyes.

[Welpe]

Originally Posted by greymule

Amazing. Proof that you should never trust your lyin' eyes.

Well shoot...first we couldn't hide them...now we can't trust them either?

[UMP25]

Tee, your post reminds me the explanation by police officials who frequently explain just why eyewitness accounts of what was seen are often inaccurate and misleading. This contradicts the belief that witnesses are a benefit to the prosecution's case.

Not always.

[johnnyg08]

they often times don't benefit the defense either.

[UMP25]

Think about how relevant this is to baseball umpiring (as well as other sports officiating, of course). We as impartial arbiters see/hear things that are often very different from what one side sees or what the fans see. I was talking about this with Bob Jenkins recently in the locker room following a recent doubleheader that we worked.

Bob had mentioned that there were actual psychological studies that were done to illustrate how the human mind can easily be fooled to believe something happened when, in fact, it didn't insofar as plays on the field.

I mentioned this because of a wacker I had at first base when I was in the middle of the diamond. Nothing special--just a typical wacker of a play where I banged out the batter-runner. What the offense and their fans saw was the BR a step or two past the bag when they heard the call of, "He's out!" However, what I saw and heard was the ball beating said BR to the bag by a hair.

I didn't have any bias as to whether I wanted him to be safe or out. The offense's judgment, however, was clouded by their desire for their BR to be safe. I'd bet this affected what they saw.

[yawetag]

"When seen out of the corner of the eye, however, the spin of the ball fools the brain into thinking that the ball is curving."

I didn't realize, as an umpire, I was tracking pitches out of the corner of my eye.