THE OPTICAL ILLUSION PHI

Phi optical illusion is an example of how what enters through our eyes may not be quite true.

Following this illusion, It seems as if our eyes were seeing a series of images that are in a successive movement, when they are actually fixed.

Actually, it is our complex brain who makes us see that succession of images in their attempt to structure and give an order to the world around us.

Content

• THE OPTICAL ILLUSION PHI
• The reasons behind the Phi phenomenon
• The amazing behind the phi optical illusion
  • Bibliography

THE OPTICAL ILLUSION PHI

The phi optical illusion was described by Max Wertheimer, Within the field of Gestalt Psychology, in 1912.

This illusion could be classified as proof of how limited our visual system can be.

In principle, Max Wertheimer dedicated himself to the study of sensation and perception and, to demonstrate how the Illusion Phi works, a line was projected on the left side of a projector and another on the right side.

When making these projections successively and quickly, The people who observed expressed see a line that moved.

As an explanation to this phenomenon, Wertheimer said that our brain was responsible for filling that space between the two lines and therefore the left line seems to move to the right.

While fast the succession of lines is shown, the more deception occurs in the brain, which thinks it is a line that moves in several directions.

Now, this phenomenon, or illusion of Phi, is common in cinema and television, being, in both cases, a succession of images that are fixed.

But, While in the cinema the projection is successive, on television the phenomenon occurs due to light impulses on the screen.

However, why do we have the feeling that the images are moving?

According to Szigety Esteban, in his article entitled “Mechanical Straboscope: a visual experience, this illusion It occurs for three reasons: first, for the persistence of images in the retina; second, by the Phi phenomenon and, third, for the critical frequency of fluctuation.

This optical illusion teaches us, once again, that things in reality are not given as simple as we believe them, as well as questioning that there is an objective or immovable reality.

The reasons behind the Phi phenomenon

Regarding the aforementioned reasons, The persistence of images in the retina was discovered by a Belgian scientist named Joseph Plateau, who managed to demonstrate that, before the image disappears completely, it remains in our retina a tenth of second.

That is, if the eye retina receives the stimulus of a luminous impulse, the impression will not disappear immediately, but will persist in the retina for 0.1 seconds.

To check the veracity of this postulate, just look at a spell of light and close your eyes. This simple experiment allows you to prove that The sensation of brightness will last in the retina for a time interval.

As for the Phi phenomenon, if the time interval in which an image is projected in succession is short, there will be a sensation that the object is moving from one position to another.

In this case, It is the brain who fills the spaces or empties between the images and creates the wonderful illusion of continuity.

So, while retinal persistence makes an imaging of images be observed, the PHI phenomenon makes a stress reconstruction between images generating a sense of movement.

But, this is not everything, then, flashes are also important to capture this phenomenon, since this consists of the critical frequency of fluctuation, in A minimum flickering frequency where a light source that fluctuates makes our eyes capture continuous light.

The amazing behind the phi optical illusion

The optical illusion Phi hides a series of amazing facts. One of them is the difference between this illusion and another called beta.

In the phi movement, the brain fills a space where there is no image, while In the beta phenomenon, the brain captures the images as if they were changing position.

In addition, the fact that an image remains in our retina for a while, after it is no longer present, also allows us to understand how we observe reality in a sequence of images that are not interrupted.

That is to say, Our reality is not fractionated, but it happens as in a movie, with moving images, instead of staying static.

With this, it is also evident that, thanks to the persistence of vision, a stimulus disappears more slowly in our brain than in reality. This leads us to question how much real there is what we see.

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Bibliography

• Gilberto Leonardo, or. (2004). The definition of the concept of perception in psychology based on Gestalt theory. Social Studies Magazine, (18), 89-96.
• Martina., & De la Rosa, C. R. (2011). Gestalt Psychotherapy Practical Manual. Brouwer falls out.
• Pascual, m. (2008). Retinal persistence and φ (PHI) phenomenon as an error in the explanation of the apparent movement in cinematography and television(Dissertation Doctoral, Doctoral Thesis. Barcelona: Autonomous University of Barcelona.[Consultation: August 22, 2015]).
• Szigety, e., Ferreira, m. TO. T., Viau, j., & Moro, L. (2010). Mechanical strobe: a visual experience. Eureka Magazine about teaching and dissemination of science, 566-572.