Slashdot Mirror
Scientists Find Believing Can Be Seeing
Ponca City, We Love You writes "Scientists at University College London have found the link between what we expect to see, and what our brain tells us we actually saw revealing that the context surrounding what we see is all important — sometimes overriding the evidence gathered by our eyes and even causing us to imagine things which aren't really there. A vague background context is more influential and helps us to fill in more blanks than a bright, well-defined context. This may explain why we are prone to 'see' imaginary shapes in the shadows when the light is poor. "Illusionists have been alive to this phenomenon for years," said Professor Zhaoping. "When you see them throw a ball into the air, followed by a second ball, and then a third ball which 'magically' disappears, you wonder how they did it. In truth, there's often no third ball — it's just our brain being deceived by the context, telling us that we really did see three balls launched into the air, one after the other." The original research paper is available on PLOS, the open-access, peer-reviewed journal."
All of the police officer shootings where the victim had a remote or other non-nefarious object in their hands. It is quite possible that the officer had a mindset to the effect that, hey this guy probably has a gun, and his or her mind see's what they wanted to see.
I've read Slashdot for the last 5 years, and now I start posting... Go figure
It may not be a breaking news story, but it's definitely interesting. I think we all have had things like this happen, and I guess I'm not surprised that it's triggered more by vague context. I've always just figured people were exaggerating when they describe stories about things that happened and someone else calls them out on it - but they probably thought they really saw what they claimed to see.
* No one can make you feel inferior without your consent *
Well, considering I've only been driving for a 'few years' and the accidents I had were within 6 months of my test :P Not exactly boasting, just saying that I don't consider my driving pre that course to have been reckless, especially compared to the average driver. The difference now is that I *know* that I'm a lot better than the average driver, and have been told so by someone that's been a police driving instructor for about 30 years. A lot of the things we were taught were things that I've been doing naturally (possibly partially because I was first taught to drive by my dad, who used to be in the police himself before becoming a coder), and I've unlearned some bad habits that I picked up over the years. I'm also obeying speed limits more now (not the ones on country roads, but in built up areas I am), but I don't going slower to be the primary reason for improved safety (or, rather, reduction of elements that could present a danger, since 'safety' can only really be seen in retrospect through a lack of accidents really), I see more my going slower as a result of firstly having more respect for the law through having been driving with a police officer and hearing that they understand that speed is not a primary factor in defining how safe a driver you are, and two it is a side effect of paying more attention - when I first was trying to take in everything like road signs that I'd never seen before, I automatically was driving at about 20mph just trying to get used to looking at them again, as well as reading them out. Now I can do my sign observations at any speeds, but since I got used to travelling at 30 without being too bored, I've been able to keep my speed down, and long may it continue (just because I feel guilty breaking the speed limits even when I know it's "safe" to do so!)
which is totally what she said