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Black on white, white on black?

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David Perry

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Posted
I was driving past a sharp turn chevron today and I was able to make the black and white chevrons switch from black on white to white on black, you know the effect I mean I am sure. But it got me thinking...just what the heck is going on? What does my brain mean by black ON white or white ON black? How does it make one then the other 'lift'? Anyone know?? D

Sylvia Evans

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Posted
Contrast !

D Hillman

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Posted
I have always wondered whether a zebra should be white with black bits or black with white bits... the effect you speak of is to do with perception, if you take some mind altering substances you can perceive all kinds of things in new and interesting ways, it is not that what you are looking at has changed but the way you look at it can. (Both naturally and un-naturally)

Edited
by Daveyboyz

michael

Michael Edwards

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Actually Zebras have black skin. As for their fur it is black and the stripes are where there is a lack of pigmentation. Came up in a recent pub quiz and if it's incorrect I'll demand a recount.

David Perry

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I think Zebras are brown, not black. Well, I know they are. Stripey brown I mean, not fully brown...thats horses ;-)

Derek Snowdon

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Pass!
michael

Michael Edwards

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Just looked it up - on the website I looked at it seems the colour of the skin varies between the different varieties from deep sand (whatever that is) to brown through to black. so maybe we're all right.

John Humber

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The Gestalt psychologists did a lot of work on visual perception. They concluded that our visual system needs contrast, as has been implied above, but also that we tend to look for or interpret the visual world in terms of foreground/background. This has obvious advantages for depth perception. In the case of the chevrons, the foreground/background is not clear as they are all the same but for the colour. It's the same phenomenon as those black/white drawings where the black is a vase and the white is two faces (not sure about that specific one but the Gestaltists did develop similar ideas to demonstrate the concept). The idea, as you observed is that you can see the white as the foreground or the black as the foreground but you can't see both at the same time (in other words, we have to see a foreground and a background or our visual perception is confused). I have a friend who claims he can see both, but as he can't prove it to me I choose not to believe him.

Michael Robinson

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I'm darned sure I couldn't knock one down even with reasonable eyesight!