What this mind-bending optical illusion can teach you about golf.
Understanding peripheral vision and what your brain and eyes will focus in on.
The following written content by Luke Kerr-Dineen from an earlier post
What is peripheral vision?
Put simply, our eyes are designed to focus on very specific points. Once your eyes find something to fixate on, your focus will gradually sharpen as you laser-in on that point, and everything else around it will begin to fade out of focus. The object you’re focusing on is your center of gaze, everything else around it sits in your periphery.
Because your brain and eyes operate on a what-should-I-focus-on-because-that’s-what-is-important basis, the stuff that sits in your periphery is deprioritized by your brain. That’s why it goes blurry, and often times your brain will make educated guesses about the stuff that’s in your peripheral vision. You can see that effect in the optical illusion below that was originally published in the scientific journal Perception in 2000.
The pattern below features 12 black dots. If you move your eyes around, you can count them. But once your gaze settles on a specific dot, you won’t be able to see the other dots. Because your brain and eyes are wired to focus narrowly on one point, most people can only see one dot at a time. And while they’re focusing on that dot, your brain makes a rough guess about the stuff that is around it — which, in this case, is the pattern.
But Luke, what does this have to do with golf?
Good question!
An emerging field of study within golf involves focusing on…well…focus. How the simple act of where you look can effect your performance.
Recent studies have found that better players tend to maintain a tighter focus on their golf ball than higher-handicaps, and that lasering-in on specific points of the golf ball can improve your contact. Read more from Golf.
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Here’s some additional information about mind-blowing optical illusions:
