The Tanuki Afterimage Illusion

Student Type

Undergraduate

Faculty Sponsor

Sara Bagley

Date

4-12-2022

College Affiliation

College of Science, Technology, and Health

Department

Psychology

Submission Type

Oral Presentation

Abstract

As part of the Sensation and Perception course, we formed a team and came up with an illusion from scratch. For our illusion, we decided to create an afterimage with the shape of a raccoon. Tanukis were raccoon-like Japanese legendary creatures famous for their antics and trickery. As the folklore goes, they were shapeshifters and masterminds of deception. Keeping this in mind, we decided our illusion would hold congruence with the Tanuki´s mischievous nature. Thus, our rationale behind deciding for an afterimage illusion. Negative images are designed to exhaust the eyes’ cone cells, forcing the non-fatigued cones to inform the brain of a present color when the image is removed from sight, creating the afterimage illusion. Our illusion illustrates the many Gestalt Principles, including closure and good continuation. The outlines are filled in by how the brain sees an image. In the case of our illusion, the image is not completely closed and is instead made of different colored dots.

Publication Date

2022

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Apr 12th, 12:00 AM

The Tanuki Afterimage Illusion

As part of the Sensation and Perception course, we formed a team and came up with an illusion from scratch. For our illusion, we decided to create an afterimage with the shape of a raccoon. Tanukis were raccoon-like Japanese legendary creatures famous for their antics and trickery. As the folklore goes, they were shapeshifters and masterminds of deception. Keeping this in mind, we decided our illusion would hold congruence with the Tanuki´s mischievous nature. Thus, our rationale behind deciding for an afterimage illusion. Negative images are designed to exhaust the eyes’ cone cells, forcing the non-fatigued cones to inform the brain of a present color when the image is removed from sight, creating the afterimage illusion. Our illusion illustrates the many Gestalt Principles, including closure and good continuation. The outlines are filled in by how the brain sees an image. In the case of our illusion, the image is not completely closed and is instead made of different colored dots.