McCollough Effect

I found something interesting, its known as the McCollough effect. It is very similar to the after image effect, that we discussed in class but it is a little different. They differ in the fact that for the McCollough effect you need to stare at the image for a longer period of time, about five minutes. But the color and direction of the black lines change with each image. Similar to the after image effect, the colors that are used are complimentary to each other. As we see a certain line orientation, we also associate it with a certain color. (Vertical- red, downward diagonal- blue, horizontal-green, and upward diagonal-yellow). The effect happens because when the brain sees a certain pattern for a long period of time it starts to compensate in the other direction. When a black and white picture is shown with the lines in all directions, it will not appear black and white because of the effect. Lateral inhibition takes place and as we see the white vertical lines instead of seeing red as we were shown in the slides we will see the white lines as green. Where the after effect only lasts for a few seconds the McCollough effect can last for a few minutes and some people even report the subtle effect to still occur after a few days.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acCqmwhppog