A 8 year old child after a tonsillectomy sees a bear in her room . She screams in fright. A nurse who rushes in switches on the light, finds a rug wrapped on a armchair. She pacificies the child what the child experienced was a:

B i.e. IllusionIllusion is sensory stimulation given a false interpretation i.e it is a false perception (misinterpretation /bizarre interpretation/misperception) of external stimuliQ. Eg. misinterpretating cord for snake or rug for bear.Most likely to occur when clarity of sensory stimulation is reduced (e.g at night or eyes bandaged)Q, when attention is not focused or mind is under the sway of an emotionally determined ideational set (eg. anxious, frightened, vigilance for intruder), or when the level of consciousness is reduced (as in delirium), or all working together. For example a frightened anxious elderly in night (or with both eyes bandaged d/ t surgery) who is vigilant for intruders is more likely to misperceive fluttering cuain as intruder or bush as a man.Illusions may also occur in hysteria, depression, schizophrenia or an emotions of great force (eg abandonment or erotic yearning).Illusions may be visual, auditory (eg slamming door misinterpreted as a repo of a pistol), tactile (eg skin sensation thought to be caused by vermin), gustatory (eg. position detected in taste of food), kinesthetic (eg flying) or visceral (eg. abdominal pain thought to be caused by ground glass).