Question

Perception illusions, or optical illusions, illustrate that our visual perception cannot be always trusted. Another is how we process information such as bottom-up or top-down. Research scholarly articles on optical illusions and explain what research has been done in this area. Explain why optical illusions occur, providing specific reasons. Research scholarly articles regarding bottom-up and top-down information processing and explain what research has been done in this area. Describe some examples of the two types.

Answer 1

Optical Illusions are created using colour, light and patterns to form images that can be deceptive or misleading to our brains. Th process happens when the information gathered by the eye is processed by the brain, forming a perception, which in reality actually does not match the true image.

Optical illusions occur as our brain tries to interpret what we see and make sense of it. Optical illusions in a way trick the brain to interpret information in a wrong way. These illusions occur because of our brain's ability to filter out unimportant things in order to narrow down to one piece of information at a time.

Psychologically, according to Gestalt psychology our brain always conjure symmetry where none exists. Illusions also take place when after images are stored for a moment on our retinas just after it was seen. Another phenomenon called the Phi phenomenon allows the brain to bridge the gap between still images thereby creating illusions of motion.

Top down and bottom up are the two general processes involved in sensation and perception. In top down model, an overview of the system is formulated without going into detail. It is after this that each part of the system is refined in more details. In bottom up model, the problem is first broken down into smallest possible parts. Solutions are defined for each small part and then these solutions are combined to form the larger solution of the whole picture.

According to Theoretical synthesis, "when a stimulus is presented short and clarity is uncertain that gives a vague stimulus, perception becomes a top down approach". Conversely, bottom up processing is, "an approach wherein there is a progression from the individual elements to the whole."