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The most verifiable part if you want to check it out yourself: Look at a mirror (not your phone camera), and look at your eyes. Now move your eyes, and try to

The most verifiable part if you want to check it out yourself: Look at a mirror (not your phone camera), and look at your eyes. Now move your eyes, and try to see the movement of your own eyes. You can't.

sovnade 4y ago
It's amazing how much our brain does in the background to smooth out processing because it can't handle all of the data coming in. This example several others (the one where you look at the center dot and all others disappear - briefly mentioned in this twitter thread also, the one where you stare between two sets of rapidly updating photos of celebrities..but after a few, your brain gives up and just sort of makes them all look like ogres, etc). Awesome stuff and I will always do every one of these silly things.
boomboomsubban 4y ago
This phenomenon made me convinced I was unable to move my eyes as a child. I thought I had some strange condition where I could move my focus without my eyeballs moving. I remember my elementary school teacher saying "don't roll your eyes at me" and me trying to explain I couldn't move my eyes and her awkwardly going "right..." Then continued to believe it for another few years.
- mgdlbp 4y ago
  > move my focus without my eyeballs moving This is a thing! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_spatial_attention https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_spatial_attention I discovered this when I accidentally performed an experiment that showed how paying attention to a bright light in my peripheral vision without moving my eyes caused my pupils to constrict. That was after I became aware that my pupil size affected how blurry things were from nearsightedness (the same effect as in cameras). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pupillary_light_reflex#Cognitive_influences https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pupillary_light_reflex#Cogniti...
seri4l 4y ago
If I get really close to the mirror, so close I can barely focus, look at my dominant eye, then look at the general direction of my non dominant eye, but trying to focus some distant object, I can see it moving.
foobarbecue 4y ago
If you watch your eyes in the mirror and move your head, your eyes appear to do an incredible job of tracking using eye muscles. Are they actually? Or are they actually tracking jerkily and it appears smoothed due to saccadic masking?
- personjerry 4y ago
  Tracking smoothly. Copied from my other comment in this thread: When you're focusing/tracking something your eyes do a different type of movement called smooth pursuit [0]. To see this in action, look around normally - notice your eyes move and then stop, taking in "still frames". Next, look at your finger and move your finger around. Notice that your eyes smoothly follow the finger around. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smooth_pursuit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smooth_pursuit
  - gameshot911 4y ago
    That's cool! I really can't track around the room smoothly, despite "trying" hard to do so! Grr....
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    - foobarbecue 4y ago
      Haha yes this has annoyed me since I was a kid!
    - outworlder 4y ago
      It is possible to train yourself to do that. I'd suggest starting with the corners of the room, horizontally, where the ceiling meets the wall. Taking your eyes slightly out of focus helps too. You will fail often. The goal is to minimize saccades. If you are not following a pre-existing "line", it gets exponentially harder.
  - foobarbecue 4y ago
    Thanks for the info. The part about needing catch-up saccades above a certain speed is particularly interesting.
kej 4y ago
As a follow up, watch someone else doing the same thing. You'll be able to see their eye movements, but not your own.

sovnade 4y ago

It's amazing how much our brain does in the background to smooth out processing because it can't handle all of the data coming in. This example several others (the one where you look at the center dot and all others disappear - briefly mentioned in this twitter thread also, the one where you stare between two sets of rapidly updating photos of celebrities..but after a few, your brain gives up and just sort of makes them all look like ogres, etc). Awesome stuff and I will always do every one of these silly things.

boomboomsubban 4y ago

This phenomenon made me convinced I was unable to move my eyes as a child. I thought I had some strange condition where I could move my focus without my eyeballs moving. I remember my elementary school teacher saying "don't roll your eyes at me" and me trying to explain I couldn't move my eyes and her awkwardly going "right..." Then continued to believe it for another few years.

mgdlbp 4y ago
> move my focus without my eyeballs moving This is a thing! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_spatial_attention https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_spatial_attention I discovered this when I accidentally performed an experiment that showed how paying attention to a bright light in my peripheral vision without moving my eyes caused my pupils to constrict. That was after I became aware that my pupil size affected how blurry things were from nearsightedness (the same effect as in cameras). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pupillary_light_reflex#Cognitive_influences https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pupillary_light_reflex#Cogniti...

seri4l 4y ago

If I get really close to the mirror, so close I can barely focus, look at my dominant eye, then look at the general direction of my non dominant eye, but trying to focus some distant object, I can see it moving.

foobarbecue 4y ago

If you watch your eyes in the mirror and move your head, your eyes appear to do an incredible job of tracking using eye muscles. Are they actually? Or are they actually tracking jerkily and it appears smoothed due to saccadic masking?

personjerry 4y ago
Tracking smoothly. Copied from my other comment in this thread: When you're focusing/tracking something your eyes do a different type of movement called smooth pursuit [0]. To see this in action, look around normally - notice your eyes move and then stop, taking in "still frames". Next, look at your finger and move your finger around. Notice that your eyes smoothly follow the finger around. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smooth_pursuit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smooth_pursuit
- gameshot911 4y ago
  That's cool! I really can't track around the room smoothly, despite "trying" hard to do so! Grr....
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - foobarbecue 4y ago
    Haha yes this has annoyed me since I was a kid!
  - outworlder 4y ago
    It is possible to train yourself to do that. I'd suggest starting with the corners of the room, horizontally, where the ceiling meets the wall. Taking your eyes slightly out of focus helps too. You will fail often. The goal is to minimize saccades. If you are not following a pre-existing "line", it gets exponentially harder.
- foobarbecue 4y ago
  Thanks for the info. The part about needing catch-up saccades above a certain speed is particularly interesting.

kej 4y ago

As a follow up, watch someone else doing the same thing. You'll be able to see their eye movements, but not your own.