August 26, 2008 | 6 comments
Illusions: The Eyes Have It
Eye gaze is critically important to humans, as social primates. Maybe that's why illusions involving eyes are so compelling.
By Susana Martinez-Conde and Stephen L. Macknik
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About 50 years ago Russian psychologist Alfred L. Yarbus tracked the eye movements of volunteers as they viewed photographs of human faces, and found that the eyes of the portraits were a primary area of interest for most observers. In contrast, one hallmark of autism is a lack of attention to faces. But even though we pay lots of attention to the area of the face around the eyes, we are still forced to take lots of shortcuts when figuring out where someone is looking. These sensory shortcuts are what make us so vulnerable to visual illusions involving gaze.
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