Hi there! I'm a grade 10 student doing a science fair project on optical illusions, and how they affect different kinds of people. =) My partner and I could still use a lot more people to do our experiment. We could especially use left-handed people. x3 It's a bit of reading, but if you could spare a few minutes, we would be very grateful.

There are 5 optical illusions, and basically you do each one and post your results, along with a little form. Please be honest.

FORM:

Gender:
Age group: The 4 groups are: 6-10 years, 11-14, 15-18 and 19+.
Left-handed or right-handed:
What was your result for illusion-
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

THE ILLUSIONS:

1, 2 and 3. http://tinypic.com/jrup3p.jpg (Don't start until you finish reading this section)
These 3 are pretty straightforward. For number 1 and 2, it is possible to see more than one image. Just tell me what you see first. For number 3, the green side can appear on either the front or back of the cube. Tell me which you see first. Now you can look at the picture. =)

4. This is a picture of a bunch of beans. Somewhere in the beans, there is a human face. NOTE: You must time yourself on a stopwatch or something as you do this. If you don't have one and can't find another accurate way to time yourself, skip this one. Okay, so start the timer as you click the link and see the pic. When you are sure you have found the face (it'll be obvious), stop the watch and tell me your time. ALSO, if you have not found the face after 1 minute, click this link to reveal a hint: http://tinypic.com/jrv1it.jpg DO NOT READ THE HINT BEFORE 1 MIN. If you do, it's obvious where the face is and your results are not helpful. ;_; If you find the face before 1 minute, check the hint to make sure you're right. You may now begin, and remember to time yourself!
http://tinypic.com/jruryt.jpg

5. Last one, I promise! http://tinypic.com/jruvmd.jpg With this, close your left eye and look at the + with your right eye. Then move -slowly- toward the screen until the circle dissapears. If the circle is already gone, move backwards slowly until it appears again. Just do this until you're pretty sure how close/far away you need to be to the screen until the spot disappears (the exact spot, or close to it). Now the hard part is you have to get a ruler or tape measure and measure the distance from your eyes to the screen. ^^; Or you can get someone else to do it. Anyways, I'd prefer the distance in centimetres, but don't worry about it, if you give me something else I can easily convert it.

And, well I think that's all. A huge thank you in advance to anyone who helps us with this! ^___^

Also, if you know of any good websites that have information about why illusions work the way they do or anything like that, please post them. Preferrably if they are easy for a high school student to understand, but if not I will try to figure them out anyways. =)

Not sure if the mods will like this thread...


Gender: Male
Age group: 15-18
Left-handed or right-handed: Ambidextrous, but favoring right.
What was your result for illusion-
1. Woman's face
2. Man wearing glasses
3. Back side
4. 1:05, after hint. I was looking for a pattern in the beans, not an actual face.
5. 47 cm

Hope I helped.

Really? Oops, does it not belong here? I'm sorry to you all if it doesn't. ^^; I wasn't completely sure if this forum was the right place to test people or not, but I decided to try it. I can remove the thread if need be. ^^;

And thanks for doing the experiment!

Gender: Female
Age group: 15-18
Left-handed or right-handed: right-handed
What was your result for illusion-
1. man playing sax
2. man wearing glasses
3. back
4. 3 seconds
5. 13.5 inches (34.3 cm). That was the only distance that worked for me.

I don't think you can remove it, but if it's in the wrong place the mods will move it. Sometimes mods don't like people asking for help with school projects, but this is a bit different so it's probably fine.

Gender: male
Age group: 15-18
right-handed:
What was your result for illusion-
1. young woman
2. man face thing
3. back
4.
5.

Gender: Female
Age group: 19+. (I am 27 in case you need this later)
Left-handed or right-handed: Right handed
What was your result for illusion-
1. A womans face
2. A man with glasses
3. Green side was at the back of the box.
4. 23 seconds
5. wow... 60 1/2 cm...not sure if this is REALLY GOOD or REALLY BAD... I double checked and then triple checked, and I got the same each time!!!

Oh, I see. Thanks.

Note to self: recorded everyone up to Carrie Anne. Thanks guys!

Gender: Male
Age group: 15-18
Ambidextrous, predominantly left.
1. A womans face.
2. A man with glasses.
3. At the back of the cube.
4. 1min 6 seconds.
5. 46cm



I was also looking for a face made up of different beans.
My answers are almost identical to AngryCrustaceans'

Aww...you used my name
Anyway, please post your results. I am curious as to what the end results are. Good luck with it!

I'll be sure to post the end results!

Recorded everyone so far, thanks guys!

I'll go ahead and move this to the 'general off-topic' section of the forum and pin it to the top for you, there's a bit more traffic there, hopefully you'll get more responses.

M
19
right-handed

What was your result for illusion-
1.woman
2.guy w/ glasses
3.back
4.20 sec.
5.33 cm

that was fun there should be more "guinea pig" topics

F 18
right handed
1. saxophone player
2. liar
3. back
4. *is very proud* 3.892 seconds!
5. 25cm's!

ive got a few websites in my old psych text books, i can have a skim through them and give you some websites if you like?

Gender: Female
Age group: 19+
Left-handed or right-handed: right-handed
What was your result for illusion-
1.woman's face
2.man with glasses
3.green at the back
4.35 seconds
5.3 centimetres! (is this bad???)

Gender: Male
Age group: 16
right-handed
What was your result for illusion-
1. womans face
2. face
3. back
4. 2.56
5. 20 inches (51 (ish) CM)

Gender: Female.
Age group: 19+.
Left-handed or right-handed: Right-handed.
What was your result for illusion-
1. Saxophone Player.
2. Person wearing glasses.
3. Back.
4. 1.5 secs.
5. 55 cm.

Gender: Female
Age group: 15-18

Left-handed

1- Young woman
2- Sketched image of man wearing glasses
3- Back
4- 3 sec.
5- 5-6 inches

FORM:

Gender: Female
Age group: 19+.
Right-handed
What was your result for illusion-
1. A man playing a horn.
2. A man with glasses, frowning slightly and looking over his left shoulder.
3. The back of the cube.
4. 6 seconds (at a guess. I was looking for a face made up of several beans and I was so surprised by the one that was there that it took me a few seconds to check the time.)
5. 28 cm

Gender: Male

Age group: 19+ (I'm 26 if you really need to know that)

Left-handed or right-handed: I'm a lefty (don't you need those guys or something

What was your result for illusion-
1. strangely, I saw them both at the same time
2. dude with glasses
3. back
4. 1:01 ( yeah, I was looking for a pattern too)
5. 48cm

Gender:male
Age group: 14
right handed
What was your result for illusion-
1.the girl face
2.the guy face with the glasses
3.the green was on the back of the cube
4.13 seconds
5. about a ruler length

Gender: Male
Age Group: 19+
1. Dude playing a sax.
2. A face.
3. Back
4. (I didn't have a stop watch, but did it anyway, and figured it was between 5 and 6 seconds. Was looking for a pattern of a face.)
5. Approx between 68.6 and 59.7 (used an extension cord to measure and then converted inches...)

Edit: sorry, I'm right handed (ambidex, but I don't practice with my left) and the measurement was in centimeters, min distance to max distance that the dot disappeared/reappeared.

Thanks so much! ^__^

tiddlyjen - yes please, that would be great!

Thanks a lot to everyone who has done the experiment so far. I'll record the new results soon. =)

EDIT: Recorded everyone up to Crysta. ^^

Gender:
Age group: 19+.
Left-handed
What was your result for illusion-
1. Saxophone Player
2. Man's Face
3. The green wall is in the back
4. 21 seconds
5. I can't find my tape measure, but a rough estimate would be about a foot and a half.

Gender: Male
Age group: 19+
Left-handed or right-handed: part ambidextrous, Left handed writer, right handed everything else
What was your result for illusion-
1. Womans face
2. Man wearing glasses
3. Back
4. A shocking 14.24 seconds, despite having seen this illusion before
5. 50 cm

Gender: Male
Age group: 19+
Left-handed or right-handed: Right

What was your result for illusion-
1.face
2.face
3.back
4. 45secs
5. 52cm

He surfaced!

Gender: Female
Age group: 19+ (24 if you need to know )

Right Handed

1- A woman
2- Liar
3- Front
4- About 4 seconds
5- 2-ish inches

Recorded everyone up to distortedpandy. Much thanks, guys! Keep it up! ^__^

Gender:Male
Age group: 11-14
Left-handed or right-handed: Ambidextrous
What was your result for illusion-
1. Guy with sax
2. Very angry African-American
3. Back
4. Four second exactly, looking for a pattern then saw the face lol
5. About 18 inches

Those were fun

Gender: Male
Age group: 11-14
Left-handed or right-handed: Right
What was your result for illusion-
1. A Woman
2. A guy with Glasses
3. Back
4. 13 secs
5. 31.5 cm

Age Group: 19 + ( 30 to be exact)
Gender: Female

I am ambidexter (i writte with my right hand, but do most strenhct work with my left hand , specially the use of a knife, that HAS to be with my left hand)

1 - I see a man palaying sax (in the balck sahdow) merged with the face of a owman(in the white shadow), almost like a painting.

2 - a man with glasses, smirking.

3 - at forst sight the green is in the BACK of the cube

4 - took 5 seconds to find.

5 - 1 foot and 15 inches = 35.02 cm

this was fun !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! COOL !

Recorded everyone up to baastetnoir. x3

Gender: Female
Age group: 19+
right handed

1. woman's face
2. man with glasses
3. back side
4.8 seconds
5.30 cm

I've tallied the results!^^ Here you are:

Man and face: http://i1.tinypic.com/mmvk1t.jpg
Word and face: http://i1.tinypic.com/mmvjo5.jpg
Green cube: http://i1.tinypic.com/mmvk9u.jpg
Blind Spot: http://i1.tinypic.com/mmvkfb.jpg
Beans: http://i1.tinypic.com/mmvknn.jpg

All the results are pretty close for the different categories.^^ Finished the write-up two days ago and handed it in yesterday. Whew, just the poster and presentation left! A BIG thank you to everyone here who helped!