Comments on: BBC Column: stopped clocks and dead phones

By: blacklemon67

blacklemon67 — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 21:03:18 +0000

It probably has to do with the way the brain is constantly anticipating and predicting the patterns of it’s inputs. We all know we have a blind spot in our eye that’s not easily perceivable, even with one eye closed. This is because the brain is constantly patching in areas of uncertainty using past experience. I guess that these illusions appear because the brain thinks the input will do something, when it does something completely different like in their “oddball” class of experiments. The time dilation probably comes from the unexpected patterns being “encoded” into memory.

By: Lai

Lai — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 21:44:44 +0000

Hmm is there a stopped yellow traffic light illusion? lol, Sometimes when/if I make the decision to beat the yellow light, it seems to last a little too long and the rational/logical (and perhaps true) conclusion is there are sensors involved. Hmm thanks for the article

By: tomstafford

tomstafford — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 05:35:53 +0000

@andy – good points, although I would say that (1) I’m not trying to explain how the filling in happens, just about evidence establishing that it does happen (2) by “inner eye” I meant ‘corresponding mechanism of perception’, I hope that doesn’t mean I subscribe to an impossible Cartesian theatre model of consciousness, but perhaps it does. Like you say, these issues are deep and tricky

@wolfgang – good point!

By: Wolfgang

Wolfgang — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 04:46:09 +0000

I can’t quite agree with the conclusion that time is only experienced through perception and that there is no internal signal. If there was no “internal clock”, then how could we judge that the first second on the clock was longer?

By: Andy Forceno

Andy Forceno — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 02:01:14 +0000

Great post about some interesting illusions. I have a few theoretical quibbles though: How does the brain perform this “filling in”? And what about this “inner eye”? It’s all well and good to use quotes or metaphors, but when we get down to the nitty-gritty, these kinds of issues won’t go away.

By: Tom Taborda

Tom Taborda — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 00:49:06 +0000

Great! But I would like to add a personal experience:

I have a ‘Barber’s Clock’ (the numbers are mirrored and the hands move *counterclockwise*)

When this clock was recent on my wall, whenever I glimpsed at it, the seconds hand would move as my brain expected it! This fleeting illusion would stop for a brief pause and finally the seconds-hand starts it’s counterclockwise movement.

*Barber Clock: placed on the wall behind the customer; he is facing the mirror; and so the reflected clock looks ‘right’.
Like this one
http://www.flickr.com/photos/olivepress/4259149653/

By: Adam

Adam — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 21:21:38 +0000

I often get this where the second hand initially appears to move backwards, then carries on forwards.