Perception Psychophysics Jokes

A psychophysics researcher was conducting an experiment on sensory thresholds and Weber's Law in his laboratory using various brass calibration weights. He placed a one-hundred-gram weight in a subject's hand, then added a single one-gram weight. The subject immediately noticed the slight increase in weight. Next, the researcher placed a ten-kilogram anvil into the subject's arms and carefully added the same one-gram weight on top. 'Did you feel any difference?' asked the researcher. 'No,' said the subject, 'but I definitely feel a huge increase in my urge to drop this anvil on your foot.'

A researcher set up a change blindness field experiment on a university campus. He walked up to a random student, held up a campus map, and asked for directions to the main library. While the student was pointing out the route on the map, two construction workers carrying a large wooden door walked directly between the researcher and the student. Behind the door, a completely different researcher swapped places with the original speaker. The door passed, and the student continued explaining directions without noticing that he was now talking to a woman who was six inches shorter and wearing a red jacket instead of a blue suit. Finally, the new researcher smiled and asked, 'Notice anything different?' The student looked closely at the map and said, 'Oh yeah, the library closes at five today!'

A group of psychology students were shown the famous selective attention video where two teams pass basketballs back and forth, and viewers are instructed to count the exact number of passes made by the team wearing white shirts. After the video finished, the professor paused the screen and asked, 'How many passes did you count?' 'Fifteen passes!' shouted one student proudly. 'Correct,' said the professor. 'And did anyone notice the person in the full gorilla suit who walked into the middle of the frame, thumped their chest, and walked away?' A student in the back raised his hand and said, 'Wait, there was a gorilla? I was too busy watching the guy in the back steal the basketball!'

An artist and a perceptual psychologist were walking down a city street when they came across a newly painted mural depicting a classic Ames room optical illusion on the side of a building. The artist marveled at the piece, saying, 'Isn't it amazing how the painter manipulated light, perspective, and converging lines to make the human figure on the left look twice as big as the figure on the right?' The psychologist stared at the mural for a moment, shrugged, and said, 'Honestly, I'm just impressed that my brain managed to process all that without giving me a migraine.'