Stratton constructed a lens 
system inside a tube that 
inverted and reversed the 
image from its usual 
orientation, as shown in 
Chapter 7. He wore this tube 
over one eye (the other eye 
being patched) throughout his 
waking hours, first for three 
days and later for eight more 
days. He observed how things 
appeared and how he behaved 
during the experiment and 
carefully recorded his 
observations.

    What were the results? 
Stratton describes an 
increasing tendency, over the 
course of the experiment, for 
the world to appear upright or 
normal, and he infers that, in 
time, it would have looked 
upright permanently. However, 
his findings have been in 
dispute and are often misstated 
in textbooks. One reason for the 
confusion is that his 
description of how scenes 
appeared varied from day to day 
as the experiment progressed. 
Another is that he referred to 
both egocentric and 
environmental orientation 
without distinguishing 
between them. Suppose that at 
the beginning of the 
experiment an object in the 
scene appeared upside down in 
the environment whereas at 
some later point it did not. For 
example, a chair might at first 
look as though it were inverted 
in relation to gravity or the 
ground, with the floor looking 
like the ceiling, but might later 
look as though it were upright 
in this respect. Still, the chair 
might have continued to appear 
to be inverted in relation to 
Stratton himself. This, indeed, 
happened. Stratton reports 
that: