I am slightly confused about how these illusions work. Firstly, it makes sense that we "get used" to the colors, but is that happening within the receptors of the eye itself or does the laziness lie within our brains deciding to ignore new incoming information to save energy? Secondly, what exactly is causing the colors to flip? My first theory would be that the flip is caused by the lingering information being combined with the new information of the white background, but I don't think that makes much sense because adding white to a color shouldn't change the color completely... I guess you could test this by switching to a black background instead of a white one which I will see if I can try and report back. My other theory would be that there's some odd flipping of colors when it is processed by the eyes and the brain like how old film worked with negatives that would have to be processed in such a way that they were flipped back before they could be perceived as normal again. Is either of these ideas on the right track or is there an explanation I'm missing? Edit: I can't really see any effect at all if I flick it to black instead of white - this seems like a clue
sharhar
I am no expert, but from my understanding the idea is that the cones in our eye get used to the intensity of the color, so they "correct" for it by reducing their sensitivity to counteract the signal they are getting. Then, when the white images is shown, you see the opposite color because your eye is "uncalibrated" and the sensitivity of the cones is out of balance.
I am slightly confused about how these illusions work. Firstly, it makes sense that we "get used" to the colors, but is that happening within the receptors of the eye itself or does the laziness lie within our brains deciding to ignore new incoming information to save energy? Secondly, what exactly is causing the colors to flip? My first theory would be that the flip is caused by the lingering information being combined with the new information of the white background, but I don't think that makes much sense because adding white to a color shouldn't change the color completely... I guess you could test this by switching to a black background instead of a white one which I will see if I can try and report back. My other theory would be that there's some odd flipping of colors when it is processed by the eyes and the brain like how old film worked with negatives that would have to be processed in such a way that they were flipped back before they could be perceived as normal again. Is either of these ideas on the right track or is there an explanation I'm missing? Edit: I can't really see any effect at all if I flick it to black instead of white - this seems like a clue
I am no expert, but from my understanding the idea is that the cones in our eye get used to the intensity of the color, so they "correct" for it by reducing their sensitivity to counteract the signal they are getting. Then, when the white images is shown, you see the opposite color because your eye is "uncalibrated" and the sensitivity of the cones is out of balance.