People stare at a pattern of narrow black-and-white lines for a minute and then look at some wider lines. The second set of lines appears even wider than usual to them. Why?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Staring at the narrow black-and-white lines fatigues the brain's feature detectors that are specific to processing the width of lines. When viewers then look at wider lines, the fatigued detectors respond less strongly, making the wider lines appear even wider than they are.

People Stare at a Pattern of Narrow Black-And-White Lines for a Minute