Why are we surprised by only some of the things that we see? Dr. Shapiro, an associate professor of psychology at American University, is a vision scientist who has been designing visual illusions for use as stimuli in experiments investigating the perception of color, color contrast, motion, and brightness. Dr. Shapiro will discuss how and why he created the illusions, how the illusions inform us about brain function, and the implications of the illusions for understanding vision in the "real" world. Some of his illusions have won international awards at contests held in conjunction with scientific conferences; Dr. Shapiro often posts illusions on his blog, www.illusionsciences.com. The talk will be appropriate for a general audience and will cover topics related to neuroscience, psychology, physics, mathematics, computer science, philosophy, art, and design.