The McCollough Effect

Posted on July 3rd, 2006

As always, I'm interested in the issue of perception and how subjective it is. The McCollough Effect is at first glance *no pun intended* a simple ghostly after-image optical illusion: Stare at two colored gridded squares for a few minutes, and then at some non-colored squares. The non-colored gridded squares will now be surrounded by hazes of those two colors. The crazy thing is that supposedly the effect of staring at these squares for a few minutes can last for hours, even through sleep! And according to the site, coffee and your level of extroversion can also amplify the effect! I say, wtf! Just goes to show how our perception of reality is so easily skewed. I'm going to leave those squares visible on my monitor all day and see how screwed up I can make myself. *grin*

Entry Filed under: SciTech

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