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The Best
Illusion of the Year Contest consists of three stages: submission, initial review, and voting of winners. The initial review is conducted by a panel of judges who are world experts in the science, art, and science education. The judge panel narrows the submissions to the Top Ten finalists,
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of the year (unpublished, or published no earlier than the year prior to the most recent competition). An illusion is a perceptual or cognitive experience that does not match the physical reality (i.e. the perception of motion where no such motion physically exists).
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As human experience is generated indirectly by brain mechanisms that interact with the physical reality, the study of illusions offers insight into the neural bases of perception and cognition. The community includes
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The NCS hosts a variety of events, including the Best
Illusion of the Year Contest, that highlight important new discoveries to the public.
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The following table details the first, second, and third place recipients from each year of the contest since its inception.
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and viewers from all over the world can vote for the winner online. The top three winners receive cash awards.
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368:. It has since transitioned to an online contest where everyone in the world is invited to
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who use a variety of methods to help discover the underpinnings of the human experience.
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that create illusions to help discover the neural underpinnings of illusory perception.
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Contributions that promote public understanding of illusory perception and cognition
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Created by: Christopher D. Blair, Gideon P. Caplovitz, and Ryan E.B. Mruczek
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is an annual recognition of the world's illusion creators awarded by the
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Title: When Pretty Girls Turn Ugly: The
Flashed Face Distortion Effect
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of perception and cognition. The organization serves a community of
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Created by: Frederick
Kingdom, Ali Yoonessi, & Elena Gheorghiu
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The contest decides on the most impressive perceptual or cognitive
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Created by: David
Phillips, Priscilla Heard and Christopher Tyler
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Created by: Roger
Newport, Helen Gilpin, & Catherine Preston
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Title: Motion
Integration Unleashed: New Tricks for an Old Dog
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Title: Silencing
Awareness of Change by Background Information
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Created by: Jason Tangen, Sean Murphy, & Matthew
Thompson
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as part of the
European conference on Visual Perception in
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Created by: Mark Vergeer, Stuart Anstis, and Rob van Lier
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Created by: Kimberley D. Orsten & James R. Pomerantz
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Created by: Ryan E.B. Mruczek and Gideon Paul Caplovitz
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Created by: Mathew T. Harrison and Gideon P. Caplovitz
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Created by: Hedva Spitzer, Dana Tearosh, Niv Weisman
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501(c)3 organization that promotes research into the
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Created by: Pietro Guardini & Luciano Gamberini
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87:. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
611:, Zhong-Lin Lu, Emily Knight, & Robert Ennis
585:Title: Filling in the Afterimage After the Image
356:. The contest was created in 2005 by professors
831:Created by: Michael Pickard and Gurpreet Singh
654:Created by: Jordan Suchow & George Alvarez
894:Created by: Dawei Bai & Brent Strickland
616:Created by: Yuval Barkan & Hedva Spitzer
566:Title: The Illusory Contoured Tilting Pyramid
550:Created by: Gideon Caplovitz & Peter Tse
8:
702:Created by: Jun Ono, Akiyasu Tomoeda, &
587:Created by: Rob van Lier & Mark Vergeer
719:Created by: Arash Afraz & Ken Nakayama
50:Learn how and when to remove these messages
998:"Vision Sciences Society Satellite Events"
637:Title: Counter-Intuitive Illusory Contours
290:
281:
692:, William Kistler, & Alex Rose-Henig
267:Learn how and when to remove this message
249:Learn how and when to remove this message
147:Learn how and when to remove this message
700:Title: Rotation Generated by Translation
543:Title: The Infinite Regression Illusion
493:
412:The Neural Correlate Society (NCS) is a
925:
629:Title: Impossible Motion: Magnet Slopes
514:Title: Motion Illusion Building Blocks
824:Title: Movement Illusion with a Twist
185:Please improve this article by adding
849:Title: The Rotating Circles Illusion
642:Title: Two Sinusoids: 6-1 Perceptions
595:Title: Rolling Eyes on a Hollow Mask
571:Title: Where Has All the Motion Gone?
538:Title: The Freezing Rotation Illusion
7:
829:Title: The Worm’s Eye View Illusion
803:Title: Dynamic Müller-Lyer Illusion
798:Title: Skye Blue Café Wall Illusion
548:Title:The Bar-Cross-Ellipse Illusion
85:adding citations to reliable sources
198:"Best Illusion of the Year Contest"
96:"Best Illusion of the Year Contest"
887:Title: The Changing Room Illusion
872:Title: Impossible grid typography
775:Title: Ambiguous Cylinder Illusion
760:Title: The Day it Rained on Lowry
676:Title: The Disappearing Hand Trick
605:Title: The Break of the Curveball
14:
1449:Competitions in the United States
717:Title: Through the Eyes of Giants
666:Title: The Loch Ness Aftereffect
523:Title: Two-Stroke Apparent Motion
350:Best Illusion of the Year Contest
285:Best Illusion of the Year Contest
31:This article has multiple issues.
892:Title: The Double Ring Illusion
450:
163:
61:
20:
816:Title: Triply Ambiguous Object
72:needs additional citations for
39:or discuss these issues on the
874:Created by: Daniël Maarleveld
793:Title: Shape from motion only
597:Created by: Thomas Papathomas
1:
1417:"Top Ten Finalists from 2023"
1395:"Top Ten Finalists from 2021"
1374:"Top Ten Finalists from 2020"
1353:"Top Ten Finalists from 2019"
1331:"Top Ten Finalists from 2018"
1309:"Top Ten Finalists from 2017"
1287:"Top Ten Finalists from 2016"
1265:"Top Ten Finalists from 2015"
1243:"Top Ten Finalists from 2014"
1221:"Top Ten Finalists from 2013"
1199:"Top Ten Finalists from 2012"
1177:"Top Ten Finalists from 2011"
1155:"Top Ten Finalists from 2010"
1133:"Top Ten Finalists from 2009"
1111:"Top Ten Finalists from 2008"
1089:"Top Ten Finalists from 2007"
1067:"Top Ten Finalists from 2006"
1045:"Top Ten Finalists from 2005"
914:Created by: Wendy van Boxtel
889:Created by: Michael A. Cohen
859:Title: 3D Schröder Staircase
727:Title: The Dynamic Ebbinghaus
187:secondary or tertiary sources
785:Created by: Christine Veras
762:Created by: Michael Pickard
752:Title: Ambiguous Garage Roof
657:Title: Grouping by Contrast
621:Created by: Richard Russell
530:Created by: Dejan Todorović
904:Created by: Matt Pritchard
884:Created by: Matt Pritchard
869:Created by: Matt Pritchard
846:Created by: Haruaki Fukuda
619:Title: The Illusion of Sex
1475:
1024:"Neural Correlate Society"
839:Title: Dual Axis Illusion
800:Created by: Victoria Skye
783:Title: Silhouette Zoetrope
737:Title: A Turn in the Road
659:Created by: Erica Dixon,
644:Created by: Jan Kremlacek
639:Created by: Bart Anderson
614:Title: Color Dove Illusion
540:Created by: Max Dürsteler
525:Created by: George Mather
977:"The Stephen Macknik Lab"
882:Title: The Phantom Queen
749:Created by: Mark Vergeer
686:Title: Color Wagon Wheel
372:and vote for the winner.
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956:"The Martinez-Conde Lab"
909:Created by: John Salmon
867:Title: The Real Thing??
844:Title: Change the Color
841:Created by: Frank Force
708:Title: Tusi or not Tusi
668:Created by: Mark Wexler
592:Created by: Rob Jenkins
408:Neural Correlate Society
354:Neural Correlate Society
319:Neural Correlate Society
907:Title: Tower of Cubes?
902:Title: Platform 9 3/4s
747:Title: Splitting Colors
732:Title: Flexible Colors
714:& Alex Rose-Henig
663:, & Kai Hamburger
560:Leaning Tower Illusion
545:Created by: Peter Tse
459:This section is empty.
174:relies excessively on
520:& Justin Charles
443:Champions of Illusion
358:Susana Martinez-Conde
590:Title: Ghostly Gaze
81:improve this article
1459:Neuroscience awards
934:"About the Contest"
577:& Emily Knight
528:Title: Elusive Arch
1397:. 20 December 2021
936:. 8 September 2009
1454:Optical phenomena
1444:Optical illusions
1333:. 17 October 2018
1004:on 8 October 2013
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1047:. 23 August 2005
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779:Kokichi Sugihara
756:Kokichi Sugihara
704:Kokichi Sugihara
633:Kokichi Sugihara
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487:Award Recipients
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461:You can help by
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426:ophthalmologists
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370:submit illusions
366:La Coruna, Spain
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1179:. 9 May 2011
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1069:. 8 May 2006
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1002:the original
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861:Created by:
818:Created by:
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573:Created by:
516:Created by:
506:Third place
503:Second place
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79:Please help
74:verification
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1401:20 December
558:Title: The
500:First place
299:Awarded for
1438:Categories
1379:5 December
1358:5 December
1337:5 November
921:References
239:March 2015
209:newspapers
176:references
137:March 2015
107:newspapers
36:improve it
1315:5 October
414:nonprofit
42:talk page
1227:31 March
1205:31 March
1183:31 March
1161:31 March
1139:31 March
1117:31 March
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1008:30 March
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940:30 March
377:illusion
1293:19 July
1271:25 June
1249:3 March
434:artists
333:Website
307:Country
223:scholar
121:scholar
1423:30 May
432:, and
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899:2023
879:2021
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790:2017
767:2016
511:2005
279:Award
230:JSTOR
216:books
128:JSTOR
114:books
1425:2023
1403:2021
1381:2020
1360:2019
1339:2018
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