Instructions for Mirage

The first parabolic mirror has a hole at the base that is centered on
top of the second parabolic mirror. Items are centered in the bottom
mirror, and are projected upwards.

Then a box is set around the parabolic mirrors

Steps to the Illusion:

1. Stand on the line, and the stool if needed.
2. Look at the box.
3. Try to reach for the object(s) you see in front of you.

A diagram of the parabolic mirrors with the pig inside is shown on the
left, , and the complete box with a floating pig is shown on the right.

Instructions for Mirage

The most popular way to create the mirage illusion is with two
parabolic mirrors (What is a Hologram? n.d.). First a box was built
around the mirage to its specified shape to hide the mirrors. Then a
small object(s) will be centered in the parabolic mirrors. A parabolic
mirror is a specially shaped object designed to capture light and focus it
to a single point (McGuigan, B., & Foster, N. ,2015).

Bottom up is a process in which you first identify a stimulus and

then you analyze the information in the external stimulus. This process first
begins in the receptor level then it keeps on going into the higher brain
centers. Top down is a process where you also identify a stimulus but in
this case knowledge is used from previous experience of the situation.
Those past experiences are what allow people to form expectations about
what to perceive.
This illusion is a mirage and top down aids this illusion more than
bottom up process because top down processing uses the background to
influence the way a perceived object is classified. The mirage is all about
perception and how the brain will perceive the sensory input from the eyes.
Bottom up processing is only analyzing what we can physically see. Top
down processing is more prevalent to the experiment as it allows people to
use expectations about what is seen to perceive the world around them. It
also aids with the misperception of this illusion in that an object isn't where
it appears to be.
Bottom up processing is more about analyzing and identifying. This
process helps with the mirage but this illusion is more about perception
which means that the top down process is more utilized in this respect.
Also, the bottom up process doesnt perceive the image as a whole; it is
perceived individually at first, and if possible the image will be perceived
as a whole. Top down perceives the whole image first and then perceives
the image individually, this is why top down is a better aid for this illusion.

Bottom Up and Top Down

Bottom Up and Top Down Process