Fooling Your Senses:

Context

Who is that, on the left?

Standing behind former President Clinton, we all recognize the former V.P. Al Gore. Or do we?

If you look closely, you will see that both faces are the same (Clinton's). So why do our brains insist that the man on the left is Gore? The CONTEXT of the picture gives us the clues.

Our brains often make assumptions on things that we see. It takes too long for our eyes to look at everything around us, so our brain takes a few key images and "guesses" at the details.

Move your cursor over the white box below to see a photo of Al Gore's real face.

Watch out for that Giant!

In the picture to the right, it appears that a giant monster is chasing a smaller one. However, it is incorrect to use any terms like "larger" or "closer" in describing either of the creatures.

The artist clearly wanted to give the picture a feeling of depth. Most artists are familiar with the use of PERSPECTIVE to make a flat picture appear to show three dimensions. The floor and wall lines in the picture make us think we are looking into a tunnel. Therefore, our brains feel that the creature on the right "should" be farther away.

The two creatures are exactly the same size (measure them if you don't believe). But, your brain thinks that the one on the right is much further away, so it must be very large to "appear" to be the same size as the left monster. Pespective is a powerful use of context for drawings. (Move the mouse over the picture for another example.)

What color did you say?

Try to say the colors in the picture. NOT the words that are written, but the colors of the ink. Read them outloud as fast as you can.

Most people have trouble doing this. The context of the shape (words) that the ink is written in confuses the brain when it is trying to name the ink colors.

This is called the Stroop Effect, and you can learn more about this highly studied difficulty here.

Who Built that House?

The house on the right seems to have been very poorly built. Was it once level, and now the foundation is collapsing?

The truth is, the house is perfectly level. It is the context that is actually slanted. This is part of a row of houses on a steep street in San Francisco, California. The girl's unusual pose is a clue that something is going on.

The photographer carefully posed the girl and tilted the camera to give us the illusion that the house was tilted.

To see the picture at its true angle, move your cursor over the picture.

The St. Louis Square?

The famous St. Louis Arch is a structure that many people instantly recognize. What we don't usually recognize are its proportions. The arch is almost precisely as wide at the base as it is tall. Really! Measure it.

There are a couple of factors that convince our brains otherwise. First, the shape of the arch means that the upper portions grow much narrower than the base. (If it was a large cube, it would not look so tall and narrow.) However, an even bigger factor is its context. Our brain sees that the arch is much taller than its surroundings, so we recognize its immense height. But, there is no real context to compare the width to. Consequently, our brains see it as tall, but not necessarily wide.

How many Shades of Gray?

The squares marked A and B are the same shade. The context of the checkerboard, with the addition of the shadow, tells our brain that they should be different shades.

Don't believe it? You can check for yourself here.

What's in the Middle?

The figure in the center of this diagram can be interpreted more than one way. Most people see either a "13" or a "B" when they quickly look at the image. What determines which one you see first?

You guessed it! Context! The context of the surrounding figures gives your brain a clue as to what the center image is. If your eyes scanned from the top down, you probably saw a "13." If your eyes scanned from left to right, you probably saw a "B."

What does that say?

Looking at letters that are partially covered shows how our brains use context in language. Your brain immediately figures out what each letter must be in order for the sentence to make sense.

Move your mouse over the text to reveal the letters. (Was you brain fooled by context?)

What does that say? Part 2

It truns out taht our brnais dno't ralley look at all of the ltertes in ecah wrod wehn we raed. The cnotxet of the fsirt and lsat lrettes, puls the expectatoin of waht wrod wlil pborlaby cmoe nxet, is eungoh for msot poelpe to raed wdros taht are hrorbily msislepled.

Big Fish!

Even a photo may seem to lie, depending on your point of context. This fisherman appears to have caught a "whopper," but if you remove the obstruction, the camera trickery becomes evident.

Crazy Room!

Many science museums have rooms such as the one at the left. The room is distorted so that it appears to have normal dimensions, while actually one side (the left here) is much further away. This gives the very convincing image of size distortion.

Another example is found below. Move your mouse over the image to reverse the position of the people in the room.