Perception
Cambridge 85ff
• A man sits at a table on a terrace overlooking the sea.
There is a light breeze in the air and he feels the warmth of
the sun on his skin. He is drinking orange juice and savoring
the smell of his coffee, as he prepares toast with creamy
butter and homemade strawberry jam. You are at a table
nearby, reading your newspaper. When you look up a few
minutes later, you notice he isn’t moving. You learn that he
has had what we could call a sensory breakdown. First the
smoky taste of the coffee disappeared and he could not tell
if the liquid in his mouth was hot or cold. Then the cup fell
away from his fingers and crashed to the ground, burning
him on his leg—though he didn’t feel it nor did he hear the
sound of the china breaking. Within seconds he was
overcome by silence and darkness.
I cdnoult blveiee taht I cluod aulacity uesdnatnrd waht I
was rdgnieg.
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabridge Uinervtisy, it
deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod apeapr,
the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be
in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you
can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the
huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the
wrod as a wlohe.
• “Perception is sometimes downright deceptive.”
- MIM, ch. 3
Perceptual Illusions
• http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/
Visual Grouping
Expectations
“There is no innocent eye.”
- MIM, ch. 4
Distinguishing appearance from reality
• We may misinterpret what we see
• We may fail to notice something
• We may misremember what we have seen
• Confirmation by another sense
• Coherence
• Independent testimony
Theories of reality
• Common-sense realism
– What you see is what is there
• Scientific realism
– Atoms in the void
• Phenomenalism
– To be is to be perceived
– Cambridge, 99