11.17.2016
Written By: Whitney Wenger
Today’s experiment focused on the brain and how it works! Or, more specifically, learning how our brain adapts itself to adjust for changes in perception. To demonstrate this, the students first threw bean bags into a bucket about 15 feet away ten times. Then, the students donned a pair of phase-shifting goggles that shift your vision about 10-20 degrees to the right. They then repeated the bean bag throw with the goggles on. The first throws were always off by several feet to the side of the bucket. But, by the end of the throws, they had started to adjust for the discrepancy between what their eyes saw (shifted vision) and the result (bean bags ending up way off to the side), and their bean bags started to get closer to the bucket again. They then took off the goggles and then threw bean bags immediately afterwards. Now, the brain was still trying to accommodate for the shift in vision, so they threw the bean bags to the other side of the bucket. Again, with repeated throws, they then returned to throwing bean bags back into the bucket as the brain adjusted back. The brain’s plasticity allows us to improve our aim despite visual impairments with practice and feedback, making us more accurate as we continue throwing bean bags.
To further illustrate how the brain ‘learns’ how to adjust for these discrepancies, we also then tried tossing bean bags between students with one eye covered, realizing how difficult it could be to gauge the distance of the bean bag without the visual cues for both eyes. With one eye covered, the ability to discern distance is hampered, so it was easy to miss catching the bean bags being tossed! They also tried threading pipecleaners in thin tubes, where at first it was hard to tell spatially where the two might meet to insert the pipecleaner into the tube. Several students then tried mixing goggles and eyepatches to comical results, seeing if they could improve their aim and perception with practice.
This experiment is always a big hit, even with the less eager participants. By the end, everyone is excited to try new things and figure out how fast they can adjust for changes in their visual perception.