Illusions of Seeing

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvii

   PDF

2. First Journey: Light, Perception, and the Laws of Seeing

   • Thomas Ditzinger

   Pages 1-16

3. Second Journey: The Geometrical-Optical Illusions

   • Thomas Ditzinger

   Pages 17-40

4. Third Journey: Perception of Forms and Brightness

   • Thomas Ditzinger

   Pages 41-65

5. Fourth Journey: Ambiguous Perception

   • Thomas Ditzinger

   Pages 67-94

6. Fifth Journey: The Colors and the Grey Everyday Life

   • Thomas Ditzinger

   Pages 95-142

7. The Sixth Journey: Spatial Vision

   • Thomas Ditzinger

   Pages 143-199

8. Seventh Journey: Movements are Life

   • Thomas Ditzinger

   Pages 201-227

9. Eighth Journey: Everyday Life Isn’t Grey At All—Illusions in Our Daily Lives

   • Thomas Ditzinger

   Pages 229-259

10. Back Matter

    Pages 261-274

    PDF

Why do we need two eyes? Why are all cats grey at night and appear to move faster the day? Why is the sky blue and the setting sun red? This book explains the multifaceted nature of perception, and discusses the mysteries of vision. It provides readers with experiments to help them discover optical illusions and the features of their own perception. Illusions of Seeing begins with a discussion on the essence of light and its perception to the human eye. It presents a comprehensive overview of the basic laws of human perception as well as the fundamentals of good gestalt. Subsequent chapters discuss geometric-optical illusions; the perception of form, brightness, and translucency and their interaction with each other; ambiguous perception, color vision, spatial vision. The book ends with a discussion of the perception of motion and its interaction with color, form, and spatial depth with a full chapter devoted to illusions in our everyday life. Consider this your travel guide in the marvelous world of sight, to experience a completely individual way to understand and improve your own perception.


Illusions of Seeing will be of interest to psychologists, physicists, biologists, and undergraduate and graduate students within the field of cognitive psychology.

• Optical Illusions
• Illusions of Seeing
• Gestalt Theory
• Laws of Seeing
• Motion Perception
• 3D Vision
• Ambiguous Figures
• Color Perception
• Vision
• Perception

• Reichartshausen, Germany

  Thomas Ditzinger

Thomas Ditzinger is a science author and an applied-science editor with the SpringerNature publishing house in Heidelberg, Germany. He studied theoretical physics at the University of Stuttgart, where he also did his doctorate and has modelled various perceptual phenomena such as the recognition of ambiguous patterns and the perception of spatial depth. During research sojourns at the Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences, Boca Raton, Florida, at the Institute of Theoretical Physics of the University of Stuttgart and at the Hochschule der Medien (University of Media) in Stuttgart he produced over 30 publications on human perception. He has written ten popular science books, including Fantastic Images 1 and 2, both of which topped the bestseller list in Germany. Thomas Ditzinger lives in Reichartshausen on the edge of the Odenwald Forest and has four children.

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