Discovered in 1965 by American psychologist Celeste McCollough, The McCollough Effect (ME) is an extremely odd visual perception phenomenon.
“The effect normally is induced by having subjects view alternate presentations of orthogonally oriented gratings composed of black and colored lines. Following induction, black and white gratings at different orientations appear to be colored. For example, a typical ME induction consists of alternate presentations of a green and black vertical grating with a red and black horizontal grating over a few minutes. Following this induction procedure, the white bars of a vertical test grating would appear to be a desaturated red, a horizontal would appear to be a desaturated green, and a diagonally oriented black and white grating would not appear to be colored.” (Excerpt from McCollough Effect to “Form”: A Local Phenomenon, by G. Keith Humphrey, Andrew M. Herbert, Lawrence A. Symons, and Sukanya Kara)
The length of effects depends on the length of the procedure; the longer the subject stares, the longer it lasts – as long as three and a half month have been recorded. While a normal assumption would be to blame the eyes for such malfunction, the root cause is found in the brain – going through the procedure to receive this effect literally programs your brain; thus why it is highly encouraged to not try at home.
Really cool or really creepy? Let us know with a comment below!