Blog Post #3

1. I completed the activity, "Seeing more than your eyes do". As you move closer to the computer screen, looking with one eye, you see an “X” on the left and a spot on the right. The second spot disappears at a certain point. Your eye does not see anything at that point, but fills it in with a white area.
In the second activity, "Reality, Construction, Deconstruction and Reconstruction", I was to identify the darker and lighter color. Tile B clearly looked darker, but when I moved it next to A, it was the same shade. Looking at the colors, I saw colors in shadow the same as colors in bright light even though the shadow changed its color.

2. In the first activity, I found out that each eye has a blind spot. In the second activity, I learned that the brain tries to create a useful picture that is consistent with what we understand as normal.

3. I was shocked when the “X”, located on the screen, disappeared. I did not know I had a blind spot. I was surprised when the colors I saw as two different shades were actually the same color. I moved the colors around and expected to see them stay the same as I first saw them.

4. This is difficult to say how it can be applied to my everyday life, since I don’t notice these differences. When I am out at a dimmer time of day, I will recognize that I may not perceive things as they actually are, such as the color of cars or the intensity of my make-up.

5. Our understanding of the world is based on our perception. Therefore, what we perceive is our reality. This will not change how I will interact with the world because it is my reality.

6. I have learned that my right brain perceives faces and that may be why some people remember faces and others don’t. These people may have a more developed or functioning right brain. I also learned that brain neurons can repair themselves in some cases and that one side of the brain can take over functions that the other side no longer performs due to injury. This is called plasticity and gives hope to people with brain injuries.

7. The man with two brains appeared to be two different people. One side had to wait for the other side to understand what was seen. It was very confusing to understand what one hand was going to do and which hemisphere was causing it to be done. When one side saw fruit, the other side saw a face. It is hard to comprehend how the brain separates the two images and sees different things. The connection between the two hemispheres is important but one can function without it, like the man