AP Psychology: Optical Illusions

Improved Essays
From birth, we are constantly reaching for anything that piques our interest, whether it be the faces of our parents or the unknown object standing before us. Installed in us from a young age, curiosity is the hunger—in the most literal sense—for knowledge. My curiosity for the human mind grew into a desire for the study of the it and human nature. (needs transition)I found myself questioning what it is that cultivates the emotions and behavior that emerge from our brain.
While taking AP Psychology my junior year, I came across intriguing optical illusions that reveal the inner workings of the brain to surprising experiments that exposed the latent intentions of people. The brain is remarkably complex and astounding—from the folds of the cerebral

Related Documents

  • Great Essays

    In a groundbreaking study, Baron-Cohen, Leslie, and Frith (1985) compared children with Autism aged between 6 and 16 to two other groups which were, children who suffered from down syndrome aged from 7 to 17, and the control group which were children with no cognitive or social disorders aged from 3 to 6. In comparing these three groups Baron-Cohen et al found the cognitive ability of the three different populations differed. After looking at two different standardized test which were the British Picture Vocabulary Test which tested verbal ability by measuring the ability to match words to line drawings, and the Leiter International Performance Scale that measured non-verbal ability such as memory and visualization. Normal children scored the lowest on nonverbal measures with down syndrome group coming in second and the autistic group placing the highest.…

    • 1640 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Commentary” Response “Commentary” is an article written and presented by Ben Stein, a comedian who doubles as a political and cultural activist. This article was written specifically to discuss the issues in today’s Western culture concerning religion and the way it is perceived by the general population. Stein seeks to defend religion in the face of an endless torrent of unacceptance and blame from society, and tries his best to convey his message for change to the audience. Ever since the beginning of recorded history, humans have shown a natural instinct to learn. Our very nature dictates that our curiosity must always be satisfied, and that for every answered question two more must rise to take its place.…

    • 1381 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    How much of our life do we really have control over? This topic is covered in The Magic of the Unconscious: Automatic Brain which contemplates just how much humans are actually aware of and how much we genuinely decide. The video goes into an in-depth analysis of the automatic brain. It shows just how complicated the many processes the human brain goes through each day, in fact at every second. Humans are immensely unaware of how powerful and controlling the automatic brain is.…

    • 1115 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Illusions can make people feel different or weird. Good Illusions can be valued because it can be remembered for a lifetime. Illusions are real important if you pay close attention. You feel different because, you obviously don’t know what’s going on. You can also feel weird because, you are losing function and your brain goes overboard.…

    • 305 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Children are such curious creatures. They explore, question, and wonder, and by doing so, learn. From the moment of birth, we humans are drawn to new things. When we are curious about something new, we want to explore it. And while exploring we discover, asking ourselves questions to fortify our curiosity.…

    • 1254 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    During Professor Jackson’s class experiment, two groups were challenged with finding as many uses for two cups as possible. Before the cups were given out, one group played on their phones for five minutes while the other group read the index of a book. When the time passed, the group who had been reading the index came up with more uses for the cups than the group that was on their phones. Heather Lench, an evolutionary psychologist, says, “Emotions should evolve for our benefit-not push us to self-destruction… [She] suspects that [boredom] lies behind one of our most important traits-curiosity.”…

    • 861 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The general public will be reading a newspaper—and although some may have expertise it may not be in the field medicine or brain studying. To appeal to this audience the author uses…

    • 1471 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Humans are curious by nature. Whenever a person comes across something new, whether it being an idea or a physical object, their curiosity grows. When a person’s interest for a certain objective grows, many things can come from this. The biggest thing a person can do about their curiosity is changing their decisions or actions. A person can decide to change their actions into discovering more about their interests.…

    • 1230 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Fmri Case Studies

    • 447 Words
    • 2 Pages

    to interpret the imagined activity from the cortical activations in the brain. Good • It’s an interesting case report. , not only about vegetative state but about mind reading.…

    • 447 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Virtuous Minds Summary

    • 1347 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Intellectual curiosity can change lives, especially when it is faith inspired. People who are intellectually curious, desire to know truth and ask questions, because they realize that without curiosity we will never grow in our understanding of anything. Intellectual curiosity is an easier virtue to develop, because our world is wired to be curious. But unbridled curiosity can do much harm, so we must be careful in where our curiosity leads us…

    • 1347 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    After years of research scientists have mapped the human brain. This mapping is key to know where to start looking for brain abnormalities and fixes. The author of the article titled, Secrets of the Brain, wanted to know more of how his brain worked. To his fascination, he discovered an interesting fact while reviewing the…

    • 236 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    A curious person is eager to better understand the world. Their curiosity might get them into trouble, especially as a child, but as an adult it prompts them to avoid simply taking things at face value. Rather than accepting other’s anecdotes and opinions as truth, they look for all information before making a judgement. Their curiosity motivates them to people watch, read, and ask questions.…

    • 1186 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Analyzing “Brainology” In the following essay, we will analyze and discuss the article “Brainology” by Carol Dweck. Starting off by the title, the opening paragraphs, the claim, the author’s purpose, methods, persona and closing paragraphs as well. Because I believe Dweck’s article was more effective than ineffective, reasons of why I believe she could've done a better work will be discussed and explained in short. The title the author chooses for this article, “ Brainology”, introduces the audience to what she will be talking about, it is important to point out that the word “brainology’ induces us to think of a very broad topic which could be understood as a study of the brain.…

    • 1253 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This field of psychology has a relatively new field called cognitive neuroscience which includes the study of physical workings of 9the brain and the nervous system when engaged in memory, thinking, and other cognitive processes. (Ciccarelli & White, 2005.) The neuroscientists that study this field of cognitive perspective use tools that image the structure and activity of the living brain for example, the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and positron emission tomography…

    • 834 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    For this writing assignment I was instructed to watch the video “The Magic of the Unconscious: Automatic Brain.” The video, “The Magic of the Unconscious: Automatic Brain,” was about a series of illusions that fool people on an everyday basis. The video discusses our everyday routines that we have become unaware of because we do not realize our brain is doing most of the work. It goes in-depth, providing information about the different types of mind tricks that humans do not realize and are essentially blind to. Specifically, the video informs the viewers on the concepts of humans being unconsciously aware of concepts such as selective attention, or our ability to only focus on certain things at once, and how our body has billions of electrochemical…

    • 1037 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays