...learned in childhood, which supports the role of previous experience and learning in accurate perception. While this can be criticized for being un-generalisable due to being a case study, it had a massive importance on Gregory’s theory, which still is one of the most influential theories explaining perceptual organisation today, and can be supported by experimental studies into previous knowledge. Gregory’s suggestion that we combine sensory information and previous knowledge to form a hypothesis about what we perceive has been supported by Khorasani et al (2007). In this study, the Muller Lyer illusion (which automatically adjusts the apparent size of a more distant object so the second line looks longer) had less of an impact on participants once they knew it was an illusion. This supports Gregory’s claim that previous knowledge (i.e. being told that what they are experiencing is an illusion) can change the way a person perceives something, suggesting the importance of previous knowledge in hypothesis formation. In addition, the Charlie Chaplin...
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...What is phantom limb syndrome? The phantom limb syndrome is the perception of sensations in a limb or limbs that no longer exist. Phantom limb syndrome occurs commonly in amputees; about 60 to 80 percent of individuals who have undergone amputations have reported this sensation. There are evidences showing that patients have higher likelihood of experiencing the syndrome when undergoes traumatic loss, or there has been pre-existing painful conditions in the limb. Phantom sensation can be observed in those who are born without limbs and in those who are paralyzed as well. In some cases, patient will suffer in severe, debilitating chronic pain. Normally, the pain attack will ameliorated with time. What are the symptoms of phantom limb syndrome? The sensation of the phantom limb can be divide into two groups: the non-painful sensation and the painful sensation. Non-painful sensation: -movements: patients have the feeling that they have voluntarily control of the amputated limb, or even try to pick up something using the missing limb. -external sensation: patients can feel the touch, temperature, pressure, vibration and itch on nonexistent body parts. Painful sensation: The sensations of pain range from burning and shooting pain to feeling tingling “pins & needles” What causes phantom limb syndrome? In a historical perspective, doctors once believed this post-amputation phenomenon was a psychological problem. However, the recent research involve neuroimaging, has showed the...
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...situation. Danticat illustrates the idea that victims of tragic situations find illusions to be the beauty in their suffering to distract themselves from harsh reality. The story of “Night Women” shows how suffering parents try to protect their children’s innocence from pain with illusions of beauty. The mother of a young son who works as a prostitute feels shame in her occupation. She finds her job of being intimate with men to be disgraceful, so she lies to her son about her reprehensible work: “Should my son wake up, I...
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...The first thing that I found to be interesting was that synesthesia is a condition that involves all of the senses. Prior to reading this article, I thought that it was a condition that only involved seeing colors from sounds because I met a person who was a synesthete and claimed to see colors from sounds. Another thing that I found interesting was the large gap between the year in which synesthesia was discovered and the year that it began to be seriously studied. Scientists have known about the condition since 1880, yet clear answers were not found until 1999. Ever since I first heard about synesthesia, it was such a fascinating concept to me that I found it bizarre that the notion of it would just be disregarded and not further researched...
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...Jessica Dort February 27, 2014 HRE4M Group Work- Journal Reflection E. The Importance of Conscience a) Key Terms Conscience- an inner feeling or voice viewed as acting as a guide to the rightness or wrongness of one's behavior. Conscience as Capacity- Our capacity to do good, avoid evil, and know right from wrong. Also our fundamental sense of value and personal responsibility. Conscience as Process- Knowing how to perceive accurately and think correctly, where moral disagreements and error, blindness and insight occur. Conscience as Judgment- The concrete judgment and and decision of what to do in a situation based on personal perception and values. b) Summarize Timothy O’Connell identifies three related senses of the word “conscience.” The first sense is Conscience as a Capacity. This capacity refers to your basic orientation towards the good, and defines the essential identity of the human. The second sense is Conscience as a Process. This sense refers to your ability to perceive accurately and think correctly. The conscience must be formed and examined. This is where moral disagreements and error, blindness, and insight occur. The third and final sense is Conscience as a Judgment. This sense refers to the concrete judgment of what you must do in the situation based on personal perception and grasp of values. The decision is not simply about this or that object of choice, but also about being this or that sort of person. Reflection Question: Q:...
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...R. gives the brain the illusion that the amputated arm is still there. The person puts the non-amputated arm in the box with the mirror and when the person looks into the box, it’s as if they are seeing both limbs. “The mirror image of the normal body part helps reorganize and integrate the mismatch between proprioception and visual feedback of the removed body. Thus, enhancing the treatment effect for phantom limb pain” (Sae Young Kim, MD, Yun Young Kim, MD). This is claimed to be the most effective treatment by many amputees. In the YouTube Video, the young man claimed that the box did indeed help with his phantom pain. This is because “ In this sense, a patient with phantom limb pain can feel the same sense or emotion of his/her normal body part by observing the mirror...
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...Optical Illusions & How They Work, Bret 9B Truly, the brain is an extraordinary organ that not only shows you what’s in front of you, but also goes above and beyond its call of duty when it finds something it doesn’t understand. Instead of leaving it blank it tries to figure it out. Though it is really quite amazing that our mind can do this, it isn’t always correct. Optical illusions use patterns and colours to deceive our mind, so that what we see may not quite match up with the world around us. When you look at these images try to look at them and try to see the illusion before you read the explanatory paragraph. See if you can discern the differences between the deceptions and reality. The illusion shown below is known as the Ebbinghaus Illusion, made by Hermann Ebbinghaus. This deceptive illusion shows two orange circles, each of them surrounded by blue circles. Large blue circles surrounds one while the other is surrounded by small blue circles. I propose to you...
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...morality. The narrator’s lifestyle suggests an illusion of one’s perception of being rebellious. The narrator says, “We wore torn up leather jackets, slouched around with toothpicks in our mouths, wheeled our parents’ whining station wagons out onto the street” (144). The illusion one perceives “bad” is creating an image of a carefree attitude and staying out late with friends drinking while driving around late at night. Wearing rugged clothes with a hard demeanor portrays a rebellious attitude a teenager strives for in order to be “bad”. One associates drinking and staying out late to be a form of rebelling, a way of breaking rules and not obeying the laws. The narrator thinks he is living a rebellious lifestyle; however, it is an illusion of what he perceives to be “bad”. The fight the narrator experiences, demonstrates the reality of being rebellious. The narrator reflects back in life, “Never mind that I hadn’t been involved in a fight since sixth grade” (146). Fighting always gives an individual the perception one must be “bad” or morally wrong in society. The narrator’s fight with the “ bad greasy” character demonstrates the rebellious attitude he has. He takes the tire iron to hit the “bad greasy” character showing who is more rebellious and dominant. The presence of the narrator in the fight, allows him to realize this is the reality of being “bad”; thus his perception of being rebellious is now an illusion to...
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...Deception “Half the work done in the world is to make things appear what they are not,” says E.R. Beadle. This quote holds true even today. Life for many people has turned into an illusion, unless we look very closely we will not realize what we see is not real. Perception of life is very important, how we see things tells us what is going on around us. Perception for one person is different from anyone else. Although, poem 1 and poem 2, both express the perceptions of outsiders each poem uses different areas of perception to express the specific aspects of their belief. Dunbar and Owen write their poem’s about different aspects of a person’s life. Dunbar believes that a person’s inner trouble is oblivious to other people. On the other hand, Dunbar writes about the mental struggles of life. “We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries/ to thee from tortured souls arise.”(10-11) Where-as, Owen’s perspective covers more of the physical struggles of war. “Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots/ but limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; All blind; / Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots/ of tired, outstripped Five-nines that dropped behind.”(5-8) “Why should the world be over-wise, / in counting all our tears and sighs? / Nay, let them only see us, while/ we wear the mask,” Dunbar states (6-9). At the same time, each author uses different writing styles in their poems. Owen write’s using many different similes. “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, / Knock-kneed...
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...perspective: figure-ground, similarity, proximity, and closure. Gestalt psychology was based on the study of perception. Gestalt is a term that means whole. Gestalt physiologists argued that we perceive as a meaningful and complex object, not a series of independent parts. In other words, we perceive any stimulus field as a simplified, balanced, and organized whole. For example, in the perception of letters with missing parts consciousness seeks to fill in this gap, and we recognize the whole letter. The wholeness of perception and its orderliness is achieved through the following principles: figure-ground, similarity, proximity, and closure. Figure-ground is a lot illusions are based on this principle. In a picture we can see either faces or a vase, or either a young or old woman. The illusion is based on gestalt when we focus on the figure from the background. The figure is what comes forward and what make sense for us; the background is what we ignore and what does not come to our consciousness. Similarity is people’s visual perception always tends to classify similar objects the same; therefore, objects with similar characteristics whether size, color, shape, or brightness are perceived as belonging together. Proximity is if the objects are close to each other, they are perceived as part of the group rather than as individual items. It is not necessary that objects are similar to each other. Even if objects are different in their sizes, colors, and shapes...
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...distinction between reality and illusions? Can someone’s illusions be their reality? What happens if one is lost within the abyss of such a struggle? Magical realism is somewhat of an explanation for such struggle. Magical Realism is a form of art, which allows people to view the world differently. It deals with emotions, meaning, and mystery in trying to figure out what life is, but only through a distinct imagination and willingness to learn can someone understand such feelings and actions. Both Pedro Paramo, from Pedro Paramo, and Will Atenton, from the movie “Dream House”, are lost within the lives that they believed to be reality but are in fact illusions. Both characters live within a life with their wives that are perceived to be true, but are in fact completely wrong. Do they figure it out? Will Atenton lives in this illusion in which him, his wife, and two daughters have just moved into a new home whose previous owners were killed and the father was sent to a psychiatric ward. The father, Peter Ward, allegedly killed his wife and two daughters only after being accidently shot in the head, himself, by his wife. Atenton searched for the answers just to be told by the psychiatric ward, which once held Peter Ward, that he is Peter Ward. He had created a new identity to cope with the death of his family. Upon figuring out that he in fact is Peter Ward, he also realizes that his perception of his children and wife were all illusions. How could it not have been real...
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...such studies and how they help to explain the development of perception. By perceptual development, I mean how animals and humans alike develop their seeing capabilities. This development of perception could be learnt or innate. By innate, I mean to be born with the ability. a) Gibson and Walk conducted a study in 1960. The study was investigating Depth Perception. The study involved a 6-month-old child, 24-hour-old chicks, kids and lambs. Gibson and Walk used a 'Visual Cliff' to conduct the study. The 'Visual Cliff' was comprised of 2 floors. On one side there was a check-board pattern, on the other side there is glass floor. Below the glass floor there was another floor with check-board pattern. This was placed so that an illusion of a cliff and depth was created. At first the child was placed and was found to be reluctant to go onto the glass. The child's reluctance could be seen as even with encouragement from the child's mother, the child refused to go onto the glass. The study was continued on chicks, kids and lambs. All subjects studied refused to go onto the glass. Held and Hein conducted a study in 1965. The study was investigating Depth Perception. The study involved two kittens. The kittens were kept in the dark for a period of eight weeks since their birth and for three hours per day they were kept in a 'Kitten Carousel'. The kittens were given appropriate name. 'Passive Kitten' and Active Kitten' were their names. The Active Kitten was given...
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...seems to suggest that our environment has an impact on our perceptual development. Segall’s research however, has been criticised due to the linguistic barrier. The cross cultural variations may be due to language differences, which mean that perception may be similar, but is reported in a different way. This would decrease the validity of findings. Gregor and McPherson compared two groups of Australian Aborigines. One group lived in a carpentered environment, whereas the other lived in a natural environment. The two groups did not differ on their susceptibility to the Muller Lyer illusion. This suggests that cross cultural differences in perception may depend more on training and education than on the environment. Even so, this suggests that it is nurture, rather than nature that determines our perceptual development. The external validity of this research may be limited due to the use of visual illusions; they are not representative of cultural differences in everyday perception. Hudson investigated perception of simple two dimensional drawings. He found that non Western societies had difficulty perceiving 3D scenes in drawings, whereas those from Western societies had no problem. This again suggests that perceptual development is influenced by training and education, as those in Western societies are trained from a very young age to perceive pictures in 3D. The task used in this research was however, extremely ethnocentric. The two dimensional picture perception task is a culturally...
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...Like many visual illusions, the Delboeuf illusion demonstrates the perceptual failure of the human visual system. A study by Parrish, Brosnan, and Beran (2015) examined the effect of the Delboeuf illusion through a comparative study between humans and Rhesus Monkeys, as well as Capuchin Monkeys. I will only be focusing on the effect the Delboeuf illusion had on human participants within two experiments. The first experiment tested twenty-two undergraduate students within two experimental groups. Human participants were presented with a series of trials where they would have to selected the bigger of the two dot sizes presented. Dots within trials were either both surrounded by rings or not. Not every trial consisted of equivalent dots. There...
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...1a) The term phantom limb refers to the sensation that an arm or a leg is present when, in reality, it isn’t. Patients may experience intense pain, paralysis, or other odd phenomena in their phantom limb that are extremely difficult to treat due to the limbs actual absence. Ramachandran suggests that phantom limbs occur due to two processes. Firstly, remapping of the brain describes how nerves that correspond to body areas near the amputated limb in the somatosensory cortex will ‘invade’ the area and produce sensation in the limb when stimulated. The nerves that supplied the missing limb will then cluster into neuromas that, when irritated, will produce the sensation of pain in the phantom limb. Secondly, we all have “an internally hard-wired image of the body and limbs at birth” (42) that will persist even when faced with contradicting sensory input. This means that after an amputation, motor commands still activate this whole body image by passing through the parietal lobe, causing our brain to create a limb that does not truly exist in order for “reality” to be compatible with the internal representation. 1b) Ramachandran’s mirror therapy involves placing a mirror vertically inside a box with one hole on each side of the mirror in which the patient places, for example, their real right hand and their phantom left hand. They then look at the reflection of their real hand in the mirror so that it appears that the image matches the sensed position of their phantom hand. By moving...
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