Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Prism goggles are even cooler than we thought they were!


I hope everyone out there has a set of prism goggles - either the goggles that shift visual perception left/right or up/down. They are easy to make (and I think you can purchase them off the web, but I can't find the source right now - I always made mine). the good folks at "Mind Hacks" recently talked about research that ties wearing prism goggles to changes in the perception of time! The research looks preliminary, but this is still darn fascinating, provocative, and unexpected! If you use prism goggles in your classroom, you may be able to replicate part of the study?

2 comments:

  1. I purchased some perception goggles on www.psychkits.com. They work very well. I have a student who is wearing the goggles throw a (wiffle) ball to another student across the room who is not wearing goggles. The goggled student consistently throws the ball about 40 degrees to one side of their target. Eventually they adapt and can throw accurately with the goggles on.

    The best part is when they take the goggles off. Now they throw about 40 degrees off in the opposite direction. The brain has adapted... and needs to re-adapt to the non-goggled vision.

    One of the most interesting things we've observed is that students who are on baseball or softball teams tend to take much longer to adapt to the goggles than non-athletes. Some interesting discussions ensued.

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  2. Psychkits company has just gone out of business. Does anyone know where else I can buy more perception goggles? I have used them for years and they are amazing for learning about visual perception. I really need a new supplier.

    jnicholson@bsd44.org

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