DOES SOMETHING LEAVE OUR EYES DURING VISION? MANY ADULTS SAY YES
It was probably sent out in 2001, as it refers to this study:
“The persistence of a misconception about vision after educational interventions,” Virginia R. Gregg, Gerald A. Winer, Jane E. Cottrell, Katherine E. Hedman and Jody S. Fournier, Psychon Bull Rev. 2001 Sep;8(3):622-6. (Thanks to investigator Scott Langill for bringing this to our attention.) The authors, at Ohio State University, explain:
“Children and adults, like many ancient philosophers, believe that seeing involves emissions from the eye. Several experiments tested the strength of these “extramission” beliefs to determine whether they, like other scientific misconceptions, are resistant to educational experiences. Traditional college-level education had little impact. Presenting a simplified lesson, stressing visual input, and a lesson directly counteracting the vision misconception had an impact, but for older participants the effect was evident only on short-term tests. Despite some gain due to learning, overall the results demonstrated the robustness of extramission beliefs.}