A new research study has been out which has revealed the actual process of seeing and observing things with eyes. For context, let’s experiment with the video feature in your phone. When you start recording a video, place the screen right in front of your eyes and try to use the live footage as a viewfinder. The shapes, colors, and motion in the video will seem to be jarring. Scientists say this exercise is a close approximation of the messy visual data that our eyes constantly bombard our brain with. So how can we see and observe things without feeling nauseated?
In a new paper published last month in the journal Science Advances, researchers from the University of Aberdeen and the University of California, Berkeley describe a “previously unknown visual illusion” that helps us smooth out what we see over time.
“Instead of analyzing every single visual snapshot, we perceive in a given moment an average of what we saw in the past 15 seconds,” the authors note in a piece published in The Conversation, a website where scientists routinely detail their latest work. “So, by pulling together objects to appear more like each other, our brain tricks us into perceiving a stable environment. Living ‘in the past’ can explain why we do not notice subtle changes that occur over time.”
This “illusion of visual stability” is a concept that will need ample explanation. Consider our eyes’ ability to focus on items some distance away, remaining stable in their ability to “lock on” to objects in their path. Now, think about what happens to your eyeballs, themselves, while they’re focused; they must move all around in order to maintain that smooth feeling while they focus on objects off in the distance—like a gyroscope that always remains upright.
