Optical Illusions Left and Right

Overview

Objectives/Goals The goal was to determine if people perceive unstable optical illusions differently based on hand-dominance, eye-dominance, age and gender. The hypothesis was that hand dominance would reveal a pattern of perception distinct from eye dominance. Methods/Materials Each of 20 subjects was queried and tested to determine hand dominance, short-distance eye dominance, and long-distance eye dominance. Then the subject was shown a series of unstable optical illusions and asked, without any prompting, to describe what s/he saw. The final illusion required asking the question, "Which face looks happier?" The experiment used five printed unstable optical illusions, measuring sticks for the eye dominance tests, and specially constructed data sheets for recording responses. Results Only one significant pattern emerged. With the "half faces" illusion, 80% of the left-handed subjects chose the left face as happier, while all the right-handed subjects chose the right face. No other significant patterns were detected with any of the illusions. Conclusions/Discussion The hypothesis was mostly disproved. As for the "half faces" illusion, I believe that it might demonstrate that left-handed people process faces differently (by looking at one side of the face instead of the other) than right-handed people. Further studies could reveal more on this topic.

Competition history

• CSEF 2005 Behavioral Sciences · Entry J0340

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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