Watching David Epstein

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 I was watching a TED Talk by David Epstein.  The figure above was part of that presentation.

I already knew about this optical illusion.  For me, the middle circle on the left appears smaller.  This, inspire of already knowing the two circles in the middle are equal in size.

I used to think that this illusion tricked everyone.  But no.

According to Epstein, living in the modern world requires adaptable thinking.  Our modern conceptual work forces our brain to focus on relationships between objects. Hence. we are more likely to be influenced by the relative sizes of the circles.

People not exposed to such conceptual work, in fact, are able to immediately perceive the middle circles as being equal in size.

Intriguing…


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