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> I think you are cheating a bit, first the instruction was to picture a pirate, not a bit of one. But the idea that when you see a (real) picture, or scene in
by Tor3 6y ago
> I think you are cheating a bit, first the instruction was to picture a pirate, not a bit of one.
But the idea that when you see a (real) picture, or scene in the real world, you actually see it all - thats an illusion. The mind doesn't work that way. You only see the little bit you're focusing on, but the brain tries to trick you into believing that you see it all. What really happens is that when you want to know about the trousers you focus on the trousers. Until you do that you don't actually know. If someone asks you to describe details about the pirate's clothes you'll first scan every part sequentially, add what you see to a list of answers, and then answer. Things work the same when you imagine a picture (for those who can do that) - you'll know the details only when you focus on each detail, and, as the image wasn't a physical one on the table top the mind fills in as and when it's needed. Just as when you process a physical picture.
- cortic 6y agoAre you really saying that if i gave you a picture of a pirate with no pants on, you wouldn't notice unless i asked you what color his pants were? A glance at the image would tell you those kinds of things, a 'glance' at a mental image should tell you the same, but it doesn't. I agree that our experience of sight is an illusion as well, but its demonstrably different to the illusion of our experience of imagined imagery.
- Tor3 6y agoIf there's something in a scene or picture that sticks out, like a green vest or a red spot in an otherwise gray image then your consciousness is made aware of this by whatever processing elements the visual system does for you. So your focus gets drawn to the missing pants (unless something else gets a higher priority - ref. the gorilla suit experiment). But that's beside the point. For me or you to have a mental image of a pirate with no pants on we'll have to create that image in our minds first, with missing pants and all, so how can you compare that with being presented with a picture on a table?