Students could come in after class on Thursday to compete in a challenge while wearing inversion goggles, special goggles that cause the wearer’s vision to be flipped upside down.
The goggles relate to the class’s recent unit about perspective and sensation. The event focused on how long it would take to adapt to such a drastic change of their point of view.
Various experiments about how humans adjust to changes in perspective have been performed since the late 1800s, and are still performed today.
Phillips drew some inspiration for the event from an experiment where a man wore the goggles until he was completely adapted to them and could perform everyday activities, like riding a bike, while seeing the world upside down.
“Psych Club sponsored [the event],” said Phillips. “We want to do things that will supplement the psychology program.”
The challenge consisted of a Pictionary-esque game where one student would wear the goggles and draw something on the whiteboard, and other students would have to guess what the picture represented. Students were then eliminated in every round until a winner could be determined.
Psychology club held a similar event using the inversion goggles last year, but the turnout was not nearly as large as this year’s.
“We didn’t expect to have so many students,” said Phillips. “About 66 showed up.”
During the first year of the challenge, the students did a series of activities that took a few afternoons to complete. This year, the students focused on only one challenge.
“If we had tried to complete every event, it would have taken forever,” said Phillips.
Phillips currently owns only two pairs of inversion goggles, but hopes to obtain more in the future.
Due to the popularity of the opportunity, Phillips also plans on holding another inversion goggle challenge sometime next week.