This article is about perception. For figures of speech, see Allusion. For other uses, see Illusion (disambiguation).
An illusion is a distortion of the senses, which can reveal how the mind normally organizes and interprets sensory stimulation. Although illusions distort the human perception of reality, they are generally shared by most people.[1]
Illusions may occur with any of the human senses, but visual illusions (optical illusions) are the best-known and understood. The emphasis on visual illusions occurs because vision often dominates the other senses. For example, individuals watching a ventriloquist will perceive the voice is coming from the dummy since they are able to see the dummy mouth the words.[2]
Some illusions are based on general assumptions the brain makes during perception. These assumptions are made using organizational principles (e.g., Gestalt theory), an individual's capacity for depth perception and motion perception, and perceptual constancy. Other illusions occur due to biological sensory structures within the human body or conditions outside the body within one's physical environment.
The term illusion refers to a specific form of sensory distortion. Unlike a hallucination, which is a distortion in the absence of a stimulus, an illusion describes a misinterpretation of a true sensation. For example, hearing voices regardless of the environment would be a hallucination, whereas hearing voices in the sound of running water (or another auditory source) would be an illusion. So, it should not be wrong to consider that illusions are just "misinterpretations" on how our brain perceives something that exists (unlike a hallucination where a stimulus is absent).
^Solso, R. L. (2001). Cognitive psychology (6th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon. ISBN 0-205-30937-2
^McGurk, Hj.; MacDonald, J. (1976). "Hearing lips and seeing voices". Nature. 264 (5588): 746–748. Bibcode:1976Natur.264..746M. doi:10.1038/264746a0. PMID 1012311. S2CID 4171157.
generally shared by most people. Illusions may occur with any of the human senses, but visual illusions (optical illusions) are the best-known and understood...
In visual perception, an optical illusion (also called a visual illusion) is an illusion caused by the visual system and characterized by a visual percept...
The frequency illusion (also known as the Baader–Meinhof phenomenon) is a cognitive bias in which a person notices a specific concept, word, or product...
Look up illusive or illusory in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Illusive is the adjective form of illusory. Illusive may also refer to: Illusive Islands...
The Moon illusion is an optical illusion which causes the Moon to appear larger near the horizon than it does higher up in the sky. It has been known...
Auditory illusions are false perceptions of a real sound or outside stimulus. These false perceptions are the equivalent of an optical illusion: the listener...
The checker shadow illusion is an optical illusion published by Edward H. Adelson, professor of vision science at MIT, in 1995. The image depicts a checkerboard...
Use Your Illusion I is the third studio album by American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, released on September 17, 1991, the same day as its counterpart...
the scintillating grid illusion. The Hermann grid illusion is an optical illusion reported by Ludimar Hermann in 1870. The illusion is characterized by "ghostlike"...
Use Your Illusion II is the fourth studio album by American hard rock band Guns N' Roses. The album was released on September 17, 1991, the same day as...
The Illusion of Safety may refer to: The Illusion of Safety (Thrice album), 2002 The Illusion of Safety (The Hoosiers album), 2010 This disambiguation...
The Grand Illusion is the seventh studio album by American rock band Styx. Recorded at Paragon Recording Studios in Chicago, the album was released on...
In economics, money illusion, or price illusion, is a cognitive bias where money is thought of in nominal, rather than real terms. In other words, the...
The Poggendorff illusion is a geometrical-optical illusion that involves the misperception of the position of one segment of a transverse line that has...
La Grande Illusion (French for "The Grand Illusion") is a 1937 French war drama film directed by Jean Renoir, who co-wrote the screenplay with Charles...
Illusion Labs is a developer and publisher of video games, based in Malmö, Sweden. Illusion Labs was founded in autumn of 2007. They create applications...
Illusion of Gaia, known in PAL territories as Illusion of Time, is an action role-playing video game developed by Quintet for the Super Nintendo Entertainment...
The Ebbinghaus illusion or Titchener circles is an optical illusion of relative size perception. Named for its discoverer, the German psychologist Hermann...
The Future of an Illusion (German: Die Zukunft einer Illusion) is a 1927 work by Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, in which Freud discusses...
Use Your Illusion is the name of two releases by American rock band Guns N' Roses: a 1998 compilation album, drawing from the Use Your Illusion I and II...
The Cornsweet illusion, also known as the Craik–O'Brien–Cornsweet illusion or the Craik–Cornsweet illusion, is an optical illusion that was described in...
POPtical Illusion is the upcoming eighteenth studio album by the Welsh musician and composer John Cale, scheduled to be released on 14 June 2024 by Double...
"Just an Illusion" is a song by the British trio Imagination. Co-written by Steve Jolley, Tony Swain, Ashley Ingram and Leee John, the song was a major...
different names: Ring-Segment illusion, Jastrow illusion, Wundt area illusion or Wundt-Jastrow illusion. The illusion also occurs in the real world....