Triangle Completion - Seeing
what is not there!
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| These two figures
shown above rather strikingly illustrate the mind's willingness
to see an equilateral triangle despite the fact that no
border information about the center triangle is in the picture. |
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The figure
on the left retains only the slightest trace of the vertices
of the center triangle but you can probably still "see"
the center triangle. |
| In
the figure on the right, we have retained the outlines of the
vertices of each equilateral triangle, but introduced some space
between where these vertices intersect each other. You may still
"see" the triangles in this case, but the effect is
not striking. |
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Here
the information about the join of the vertices has been destroyed;
lessening the effect even more. |
| In
the final figure on the right all of the lines have been joined,
allowing one to parse the picture as a star. When this is done
the two triangles are not perceived. However, you may find that
you can still see one or the other. |
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