Silencing - New Visual Illusion

Silencing is a new illusion that shows it's hard to notice when moving objects change.

Cambridge, MA – Scientists at Harvard have found that people are remarkably bad at noticing when moving objects change in brightness, color, size, or shape. In a paper published in Current Biology, the researchers present a new visual illusion that "causes objects that had once been obviously dynamic to suddenly appear static," and that "demonstrates the tight coupling of motion and object appearance." The results have implications for everything from video game design to the training of pilots. Several videos demonstrating this striking effect can be found here.

SILENCING demonstrates the tight coupling of motion and object appearance. Simply by changing the retinotopic coordinates—moving the object or the eyes—it is possible to silence awareness of visual change, causing objects that had once been obviously dynamic to suddenly appear static.

Color Changes

Instructions: Play the movie while looking at the small white speck in the center of the ring. At first, the ring is motionless and it's easy to tell that the dots are changing color. When the ring begins to rotate, the dots suddenly appear to stop changing. But in reality they are changing the entire time. Take a look.

The same is true of changes in brightness, size, and shape:

Brightness Changes

Size Changes

Shape Changes

The paper, titled Motion Silences Awareness of Visual Change, was published online in Current Biology on January 6, 2011. It was written by graduate student Jordan Suchow and professor George Alvarez, both in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University.