If you think vision had everything to do with your eyes, you’re wrong!
The lens of the eyeball focuses light back onto the retina, where photoreceptive rods and cones are affected by the wavelength of the light. Information about the light entering the eye travels through the optic nerve, where it is then interpreted by the brain. The brain is responsible for taking raw data about light wavelengths and untangling the patterns, using memory in order to make sense of the images that the brain ultimately “sees.”
The phenomenon of human vision goes a lot deeper than the eyes. As a matter of fact, most of it happens in your brain, where visual stimuli gets processed, untangled and turned into something that makes sense. But that ‘something’ is not always an accurate representation of said stimuli.
Enter pareidolia – the brain’s tendency to jump to the most efficient conclusion regarding seemingly random visual data. It’s why we see faces in clouds. It’s why a bush seems to take on the shape of a wolf when you’re walking through the forest at midnight.
The ability to see that cloud or bush for what it really is isn’t something everyone has. Only the most perceptive of people can accurately decode images all the time. You could say that such people have evolved beyond the stage where pareidolia was necessary for survival. After all, at one point in time, erring on the side of caution and seeing that bush as a wolf was helpful.
Try Also: What Is Your Dominant Gender According To This Color Test?
So, what’s all this got to do with you? Well, how would you like to test your perception level? Don’t worry, I’m not going to send you off into the wilderness or have you stare at clouds for hours. The test I’m about to show you is simple; it’ll only take you a few minutes.
Have a look at the following flip cards and see how long it takes you to decode the image.
Once you see it, you cannot un-see it!
Originally published on David Wolfe
3 Comments
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.