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Illusions, perception and Bayes

Nature Neuroscience volume 5, pages 508–510 (2002)Cite this article

A new model shows that a range of visual illusions in humans can be explained as rational inferences about the odds that a motion stimulus on the retina results from a particular real-world source.

Artists can create powerful illusions of distance, size, shape and orientation by mimicking on canvas the images that would be formed on the retina by perspective projection from a three-dimensional environment. These perceptual errors seem to reveal a rational (but automatic) perceptual system designed to correctly interpret the retinal images evoked by the world. This appealing explanation of visual illusions is often viewed as insufficient, however, because many idiosyncratic illusions seem unlike the rational solution to any problem.

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Figure 1: Bayesian ideal observers for tasks involving the perception of objects or events that differ along two physical dimensions, such as aspect ratio and slant, size and distance, or speed and direction of motion.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Perceptual Systems, University of Texas Austin, Seay Psychology Building, Austin, 78712-7789, Texas, USA

    Wilson S. Geisler

  2. Psychology Dept., University of Minnesota, 75 E. River Rd., Minneapolis, 55455, Minnesota, USA

    Daniel Kersten

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  1. Wilson S. Geisler
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  2. Daniel Kersten
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Geisler, W., Kersten, D. Illusions, perception and Bayes. Nat Neurosci 5, 508–510 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn0602-508

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