The illusions your brain won't let you forget: Tricks reveal how the mind can be altered to see or hear hidden items


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If you think the noises you hear around you are purely driven by the outside world, then think again.

When your brain hears something, the way it interprets the sound is based on both external events and your own expectations.

Listen to this 50-second audio clip to find out if the trick works for you. The clip begins with a digitally altered sound that is entirely meaningless once it's heard.

Click on the image to listen to the clip

The Philadelphia Franklin Institute's chief bioscientist, Jayatri Das, then plays the original, unaltered clip with a woman's voice saying: 'The Constitution Centre is at the next stop.'

When the altered clip is played again, what sounded like gibberish, suddenly sounds clear.

This is because when the human brain expects to hear something, it will alter the sound to make it meet its expectations.

However, psychologists and scientists have been unable to determine exactly what causes this phenomenon.

The World Cup logo can also looking like someone doing a facepalm 
The World Cup logo can also looking like someone doing a facepalm 

The World Cup logo (left) can also look like someone doing a facepalm (right). This is because when the brain expects to hear or see something, it alters perception of the sound or image to make it meet its expectations

REALITY VS PERCEPTION 

These tricks work because when the human brain expects to hear or see something, it will alter its perception of the sound or image to make it meet its expectations.

'All this makes the line between perception and cognition fuzzy, perhaps even vanishing,' University of Edinburgh, philosopher Andy Clark said.

Psychologists have used visual tricks such as these to investigate how the brain works. Often, they'll use images for which there are two totally different interpretations.

The phenomenon also happens visually. For example, the World Cup logo looks like a trophy with an abstract football at the top.

Once a person is told it looks like a certain image, they are not able to 'unsee' that image.

Another example is the famous spot the dog optical illusion, thought to have been created by Richard Gregory of Bristol University.

The image looks meaningless until someone points out the outline of a dalmation.

'All this makes the line between perception and cognition fuzzy, perhaps even vanishing,' University of Edinburgh, philosopher Andy Clark told Yahoo News.

When you first look at this picture you'll probably see a rabbit facing to the right. However, if you continue to look at the picture it'll flip to become a duck looking to the left

When people first look at this picture they report seeing a rabbit facing to the right. However, if they continue to look at the image it flips to become a duck looking to the left

Psychologists have used visual tricks, such as these to investigate, how the brain works. Often, they'll use images for which there are two totally interpretations.

One of the most famous is the duck-rabbit trick. When you first look at the picture, you'll probably see a rabbit facing to the right.

However, if you continue to look at the picture it'll flip to become a duck looking to the left. This is known as a 'bistable' image.

This means viewers are unable to see both pictures at the same time and will instead flip between seeing the duck and then the rabbit.

This illusion was originally popularised in 1899 by American psychologist Joseph Jastrow, who used it to make the point that we 'see' with our brains as well as our eyes.

These tricks reveal that what people think they're hearing and seeing may sometimes match up more to their expectations than to reality.

 



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