I've been able to purchase and read several books this past spring and summer.  I will be posting about several of them.  The first summer review is The Human Brain Book by Rita Carter (the subtitle is "An illustrated guide to its structure, function, and disorders).  The book makes for not just a great coffee table book (it's over sized), but also includes a DVD that has some additional features one can use in class. The publisher is D/K, the wonderful publishers whose books are among my favorites. Oh, how I wish I had a book like this when I began teaching psychology.  From a visual learner's point of view, this book hits the jackpot. It begins with a history of studying the brain, landmarks in neuroscience and photos of a series of brain scans.  You know all those pesky little questions that your students ask, but you're not sure of the answer because your neuroscience course was 20+ years ago and the images (I mean drawings) were in black and...

Of course, we are all fascinating by illusions.  Now, it seems that there is an artist who creates them using Adobe Photoshop. His name is Erik Johansonn, a Swedish designer.  While there are many examples, here are a couple of which we will tease you with below.  You can find these and more of his work at this site:  http://www.alltelleringet.com/

Going back through my bookmarks, I (Chuck) ran across this site, Optics for Teens.  The site is very basic, but includes great information: What is optics? Celebrities and experts in the fields of light Optical Illusions Additional links to light and vision  Gallery Page Page for Teachers and Parents The image below is in the site's gallery as an example of the sun seen in three ultraviolet lights

When I (this is Chuck) began teaching AP Psych, I had difficulty explaining why certain illusions were based in the eye and why others were based in the brain.  I had never had an undergraduate course in sensation and perception and my book resources were almost non-existent.  There is a proliferation of illusion sites on the web, but few actually explain the illusion. I've discovered the Illusion Sciences blog site that explains the illusions much to my delight.

In the last few months, Gerry Palmer introduced a new product to the line of PsychKit.com games and activities; a set of inversion goggles. These glasses literally "turn the world upside down" for the viewer, use only one 4" prism. This design makes for a larger field of vision than the older two prism models. Students can have fun trying to write their name, pick up an object or draw a picture using the goggles. The inversion goggles work perfectly when covering how the lens in the eye inverts the image. A student in the AP Psychology class at Pinkerton Academy of Derry, NH has posted a short (1:38) YouTube video of someone wearing a set of inversion goggles trying fairly unsuccessfully to write her name on a white board at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpKEHEuJ2oQ It should be noted, the goggles in the video are not from PsychKits, but instead made by Jim Matiya who for many many years was the main supplier of both displacement and inversion goggles for teachers around the...