Pareidolia is a psychological phenomenon where a person sees a face, object, animal or some other meaningful image from a nebulous stimulus. Basically pareidolia is the act of seeing something where the image of that thing visually emerges from an ambiguous image.

Common examples of the type of objects people perceive are animals, faces, or other everyday objects. Clouds, rocks and other formations are the typical sources for pareidolia. The Man in the Moon is an example of pareidolia with which most people are familiar.

Rules of the Game

In Rock-IT! a random rock is selected from a set of 52 rocks. All of the rocks in this game were found at Malibu beach in California. By carefully examining the rock and applying a little creativity, the player will recognize a face, object, figure, space alien or some other object.

The purpose of the game is to see as many objects as possible within the selected timeframe. The timer can be set to 1, 3 or 5 minutes. Up to 8 participants can play in any single game. The players are designated as ‘Player #1’, ‘Player #2’, and so on.

Once the timer starts players study the rock and write down the name of anything they see. Players can use the official Rock-IT! score sheets or they can use the Notes app on their iPhones to make a record of their images. When the allotted time in complete the players put down their pencils and begin scoring the round. A player reads aloud one of their answers. If other players have the same answer all players with that answer score one point. If no other player has that same answer, the player must justify the answer by explaining how it was found on the rock. Player’s vote to accept or not accept the answer. Agreement by all players that the answer is recognizable is required in order to score a point for the answer.

When all players have scored their answers tap the scoreboard icon and record the scores. Continue to the next round. There are three rounds in each game. The player with the most points at the end of round 3 wins the game.