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Everyone loves a good optical illusion.
每个人都喜欢好的视觉错觉。
There are ones that play with your perception of color, or look like they're swirling even though they're still.
有一些视觉错觉会影响你对颜色的感知，或者看起来它们在打转，即使它们静止不动。
And how about the Muller-Lyer illusion? It's named after the German sociologist,
缪勒-莱尔错觉呢？它是以德国社会学家的名字命名的，
Franz Carl Müller-Lyer, who came up the image in 1889.
弗兰兹·卡尔·穆勒-莱尔在1889年创作了这幅画。
Basically, it's a couple of arrow-like figures. How do you think the lines compare to each other?
基本上，它是一对箭头状的图形。你认为这两条线有什么不一样?
Even if you've seen this illusion before, chances are the lines look like they're slightly different lengths—
即使你以前见过这种错觉，可能它们的长度看起来略有不同。
but they're actually the same. But not everyone falls for this trick.
但它们其实是一样的。但并不是每个人都会上当。
A lot of it might actually have to do with where you're from and what you're used to seeing,
大多数时候与你来自哪里以及你曾经看过的东西有关，
because optical illusions are designed to trick your brain.
因为视觉错觉是为了欺骗你的大脑。
The brain's visual cortex processes everything your eyes see,
大脑的视觉皮层处理眼睛看到的一切，
starting with two-dimensional images from your retinas, and figuring out depth somehow.
它始于视网膜上的二维图像，并以某种方式计算深度。
We think the brain calculates depth using binocular disparity—
我们认为大脑利用双眼视差来计算深度——
the difference between what your right eye sees and what your left eye sees—
右眼和左眼的区别——
along with other cues, like the size of different things and angles in a space.
以及其它提示，比如不同事物的大小和在空间的角度。
Psychologists think the Müller-Lyer illusion hinges on those other visual cues that hint at three dimensions,
心理学家认为，缪勒-莱尔错觉取决于那些暗示三维空间的视觉提示，
and works best on brains that are used to seeing a bunch of right angles.
并且对那些习惯看到很多直角的大脑来说效果最好。
Many of us live and work in spaces that are chock full of right angles,
我们中的大多数人在充满直角的空间生活和工作，
so we're used to interpreting depth in boxy rooms.
所以我们习惯于在四四四方方的房间里解读深度。
If you're standing on one side of a long table, for instance,
如果你站在一张长桌的一侧，
you know that the side closest to you is the same size as the opposite.
你知道，最靠近你的那一边和对边长度一样。
But the closer side looks bigger, and the farther side looks smaller.
但是较近的一边看起来长度更长，而更远的一边看起来长度更短。
That's thanks to perspective. The Müller-Lyer illusion plays with our brain's sense of perspective.
这是因为视角的缘故，缪勒-莱尔错觉与大脑的视角有关。
The arrow-like caps on the ends of each line might trick our brains into interpreting both of them as having some depth.
每行末端都有一个箭头状的帽子，这可能会让我们的大脑误以为它们都有一定的深度。
So the line with inward-pointing arrow heads is being interpreted as farther away,
所以箭头朝内的线被解读为更远，
and the line with outward-pointing arrow heads is being interpreted as closer.
而箭头朝外的线被解读为更近。
Even though our eyes might detect that the lines are the same length, our brains might get confused about the perspective.
尽管我们的眼睛可能会发现线条长度相同，但大脑可能会对视角感到困惑。
You brain might perceive the farther line as smaller, like that far end of a table in a 3D world, and therefore think it's really a longer line.
大脑可能会感知到距离远的线更短，就像3D世界中桌子的远端一样，因此认为这条线实际上会更长。
Not all people are surrounded by so many 90-degree angles, though.
然而，并不是所有的人周围有这么多90度的角。
And those who aren't seem to be less susceptible to the Müller-Lyer illusion.
周围没有那么多90度角的人似乎不太容易受到缪勒-莱尔错觉的影响。
In the 1960s, a group of researchers led by psychologist Marshall H. Segall set out to test what they called the "carpentered world" hypothesis
20世纪60年代，心理学家马歇尔·塞格尔(Marshall H. Segall)带领一组研究人员着手对所谓的“木工世界”假说
and the "experience with two-dimensional representations of reality" hypothesis.
以及“二维现实表征”假说进行测试，
The researchers proposed that some peoples' experience with "carpentered" or box-like spaces and 2D images of 3D spaces,
研究人员提出，一些人的“木制”或者盒状空间以及3D空间中2D图片的体验，
like photographs of rooms, helped the illusion trick their brains.
比如房间里的照片，能够帮助错觉。
They collected data from individuals in 17 groups of people around the world,
他们收集了来自世界各地17组人的数据，
showing them sets of two arrow-like lines—one with the caps pointing out, labeled a, and one with the caps pointing in, labeled b.
研究人员向他们展示两组类似箭头的线—— 一个是帽朝外，标记为a，另一帽朝内，标记为b。
Then, they gathered data about how much longer line a needs to be than line b before people perceived them as equal.
然后，他们收集了关于人们认为a线和b线相等之前，a线需要比b线长多少的数据。
The greater the difference, the more susceptible the group was to the illusion.
差异越大，这群人越容易受错觉影响。
The most susceptible group was from Evanston, Illinois in the United States.
最易受影响的群体是美国伊利诺伊州的埃文斯顿。
And the group of Europeans living in Johannesburg, South Africa was pretty susceptible too.
生活在南非约翰内斯堡的欧洲人也很容易受到影响。
On the other hand, societies of agriculturalists and foragers, like the San from the Kalahari Desert or Bete from the Ivory Coast,
另一方面，农学家和觅食者的社会，如喀拉哈里沙漠的圣人或象牙海岸的贝特，
were less tricked by the illusion. And they probably didn't spend as much time in right-angle-filled environments.
更少被错觉欺骗。可能他们在充满直角的环境中待的时间不长。
Of course, one study isn't definitive proof of a phenomenon.
当然，一项研究并不能证明这一现象。
A different study from 1973 involved one group of Americans and five groups of Zambians.
1973年的另一项研究——一组美国人和五组赞比亚人参与其中——
And a difference was found between Zambians living in rural and urban environments,
发现生活在农村和城市环境中的赞比亚人之间存在差异，
where those living in urban environments were more susceptible to the illusion.
生活在城市环境中的人更容易受到错觉的影响。
This supported the idea that being tricked by the illusion could involve factors like people's immediate surroundings.
该研究支持了这样一种观点，即被错觉所欺骗的因素中可能涉及像人的周围环境这样的因素。
And as psychologists have studied this illusion more,
随着心理学家对视觉错觉的研究越来越多，
it seems like how you perceive the lines in the Müller-Lyer illusion is at least partially influenced by what you see all the time,
似乎穆勒-莱尔错觉中的线长至少部分受到一直所看事物的影响，
because that's what your brain is used to interpreting.
因为那是大脑用来解释的东西。
Other researchers have tried to look into different cases where visual perception seems to be influenced by your surroundings and culture.
其他研究人员尝试过将目光转向另一案例——视觉感知似乎受到周围环境和文化的影响。
A 2005 study, for instance, found that Japanese and American undergraduates noticed changes in images differently.
例如，2005年的一项研究发现，日本和美国的大学生注意到的图像变化是不同的。
They were shown pictures of different scenes like an American city,
让他们看不同场景的照片，比如一座美国城市，
a Japanese city, or something without cultural markers like a generic construction site.
一座日本城市，或者没有文化标志的事物，比如一般的建筑工地。
And they were given a change blindness task, where they had to pick out small changes between very similar sets of pictures.
他们接受了一项变化盲视任务，必须在非常相似的一组图片中找出微小的变化。
With American scenery, all participants were generally better at seeing changes that involved prominent objects.
对于美国风景，所有参与者通常更善于看到与突出物体有关的变化。
And with Japanese scenery, all participants were generally better at noticing changes in the background.
对于日本风景，所有参与者通常更善于注意到背景的变化。
But with the neutral scenery, it seemed like cultural differences showed up:
但对于中性风景，似乎出现了文化差异：
Japanese students noticed more contextual changes, and American students noticed more focal object changes.
日本学生注意到更多的是情境变化，美国学生注意到更多的是焦点物体变化。
Citing other studies that tracked participants'eye movements,
研究人员引用其他追踪参与者的眼球运动的研究，
the researchers proposed that these differences could be because different people pay attention to their surroundings differently.
提出这些差异可能是因为不同人对周围环境的关注点不同。
Or it could mean that different environments encourage different kinds of interpretation by our eyes and brains.
也可能是因为不同的环境激励我们的眼睛和大脑做出不同的解释。
It's important to remember, though, that there might be other factors in play in these perception experiments.
不过，重要的是要记住，在这些感知实验中可能还有其他因素在起作用。
But if these kinds of studies tell us anything, it's that brains are complicated, and everyone is probably seeing things from a slightly different perspective.
但如果说这些研究告诉我们什么的话，那就是大脑是复杂的，每个人都可能从略微不同的角度看事物。
Thanks for using your eyes and brains to watch this episode of SciShow Psych!
感谢收看本期的心理科学秀！
If you want to learn more about weird phenomena involving the human mind, you can go to youtube.com/scishowpsych and subscribe.
如果你想了解更多有关人类大脑的奇怪现象，可以访问并订阅youtube.com/scishowpsych。
