“In this beautiful book, Susana Martinez-Conde and Stephen Macknik compile some of the most surprising, compelling, and elegant visual illusions of the new millennium and explain how and why they work. You’ll be amazed.”
—Daniel Simons, professor of psychology at the University of Illinois and bestselling coauthor of The Invisible Gorilla
“Visual illusions flummox us. They mystify, confuse, baffle, bewilder, perplex, stump, and confound. They do so because they contain in them our evolutionary tracks and the way we view our physical world today. This collection by Susana Martinez-Conde and Stephen Macknik represents the best of a yearly competition to discover the most impressive visual illusions that the best minds among us can create. In giving us this compendium, Martinez-Conde and Macknik bring us face-to-face with our evolutionary history and our aspirations for who we might be. A feast for your eyes!”
—Mahzarin R. Banaji, Richard Clarke Cabot Professor of Social Ethics at Harvard University and coauthor of Blindspot
“Illusions are a window into how the brain generates our perceptions. Nowhere is this better illustrated and explained than in Champions of Illusion. Highly recommended!”
—Earl Miller, Picower Professor of Neuroscience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
“Visual illusions are perpetually entertaining, but they are not merely amusing curiosities; they have profound implications for understanding the mechanisms underlying normal human vision. Our perception of the world, despite its appearance of coherence, stability, and authenticity, is in fact evanescent and transitory, and Susana Martinez-Conde and Stephen Macknik—two leaders in the field—use cleverly contrived illusions to make the point.”
—V. S. Ramachandran, Director of the Center for Brain and Cognition at the University of California, San Diego, and bestselling author of Phantoms in the Brain and coauthor of The Tell-Tale Brain