What+you+see+is+what+you+get?

From Plato's The Republic, the 'Allegory of the Cave' suggests that our perception of truth and therefore our understanding of reality or truth are limited.

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Can we relate this allegory to the way we perceive "common-sense reality" through our senses? (Plato is getting at something more than just sense perception through our five senses but perception in a bigger sense, but let's not get into that just now.) Does this story make for a fair metaphor of our abilities to perceive truth and gain knowledge through our senses? The story holds out the possibility of being able to "see more clearly" reality or the truth if we are afforded the right situation. Are the shackles on our perception physical, cultural, linguistic, or something else? Is Plato right? Is he on to a kind of truth here?

=Which is the more important apparatus, the sense organs or the brain?=

Your eyes can see something that is a mess and make sense of it!

// Olny srmat poelpe can raed this. I cdnuolt blveiee that I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd what I was rdanieg. Bacuese of the phaonmneal pweorof the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deos'nt mttaer in what oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the fisrt and last ltteer be in therghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can still raed it wouthit a porbelm. This is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the word as a wlohe. Amzanig, huh? Yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! //

Pretty cool, yes? but our brain wants to see common sense things so much that it will sometimes organize reality for us in ways that we can understand.
Every first grader in my daughter's class saw a puppy. Isn't this just a bunch of black splotches on a white background? My daughter also likes Bill Nye so: media type="custom" key="21732080"

=Perceptual Illusions=


 * Visual Grouping :** the tendency to look for meaning in what we see and group things into patterns and shapes
 * Context:** the way we see something depends in part on the surrounding context
 * Figure and Ground:** the tendency to highlight certain aspects (figure) and treat other parts as background (ground)
 * Expectation:** we see what we expect to see

=**Visual Grouping**= Like my daughter's puppy, we tend to group the things we see into comprehensible patterns and sometimes we can play with this: Saxophone player or girl's face? Duck or Rabbit? Sometimes Artists play with our mind's tendency to look for meaning in pattens to make a statement. So, vibrant young lady or death? What is it really?

And again...Old age or supple youth in song?

You get the idea. [|Some images of Jesus and the Devil in the hair of the Elizabeth the II]

=**Context**= An average sized man looks like a giant in a room of dwarves: Which soldier is tallest?

media type="youtube" key="5ic7QGjGEX8" height="315" width="420" An Ames room designed to take advantage of our brain's tendency to rely on context. The Ames room only works as an illusion from the right perspective or viewing point. In this case the context is the understanding of a room, a room like this: Which is another illusion because it is flat but gives a sense of depth.

=** Figure and ground **=

In this case the ground figures can "create" a triangle figure.

Vase or face(s)?

Other types of illusions can result from

=** Expectation **= Read:

If you read this as "I love Paris in the Springtime," as opposed to "I love Paris in the the Sprintime," it is because you don't expect a second "the." Is is not expected so you you don't notice it.

Watch: media type="youtube" key="mRsofi64Wz0" height="315" width="420" In Magic, we are fooled because we rely on our expectations and magicians take advantage of and manipulate this tendency.

=Other Kinds of illusions.= These anomalous movement illusions are actually static. They are not moving but a static image appears to be moving due to the //cognitive// effects of interacting color contrasts and shape position.



http://www.bbc.com/future/bespoke/story/20150130-how-your-eyes-trick-your-mind/index.html

[|more illusions]

= Discussion Posting =
 * 1) Write a thoughtful response (around 250-300 words) to the task below in your class discussion page in the toolbar on the left.
 * 2) Comment on at least two other responses. One of your comments must be to a response without any comments. Make this something more substantial than, "Great Response!"


 * Choose one of the quotes above (from our class discussion) and explain what you think the author intended to say. To what extent do you agree with this?


 * Homework: ** Reading: van de Lagemaat p.p. 86-90