Joseph Jastrow

Helped found experimental psychology in America and gave his name to the Jastrow illusion, one of the enduring optical illusions used to demonstrate that perception is an active interpretation rather than a passive recording of what's in front of the eyes. Believed the public carried mistaken assumptions about how the mind works, and spent much of his career outside the lab too — on speaking tours, in popular magazines, and on the radio — trying to correct them.