The Rubber Hand Illusion: Is Seeing Believing?

The Rubber Hand Illusion: Is Seeing Believing?
This video demonstrates bottom up perception overriding top down knowledge. Initially, the participants had top down knowledge that the rubber hand was not their hand. Although the rubber hand looks similar to a real hand, it is clear the rubber hand is not a real hand. As the participants' real hand (that was hidden) and the rubber hand (not hidden) began being stimulated simultaneously, the participants' bottom up perception overrode their top down knowledge, and felt the rubber hand was their real hand. This was evident when the hammer hit the rubber hand and the participants reacted as if the hammer was hitting their real hand. This illusion demonstrates how our senses have the ability to deceive us, showing that seeing should not necessarily lead to believing.

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Negative Afterimage

Reber Shukri Professor Vaughn Negative afterimage is a stimulus which elicits a positive image. In order to experience this, one can look at a bright source of light and then look away to a dark area. The way negative afterimage works is when the eye's photo-receptors which are the rods and cones adapt to over stimulation and lose sensitivity. The photo-receptors which are constantly exposed to the same stimulus will fatigue their supply of photo pigment, resulting a decrease in signal to the brain. The way negative afterimage connects to perception is because of bottom up processing where the stimulus influences what we perceive. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szy8iNCljlQ <Link to the video

Illusions that Confuse Multiple Senses

In this video, several illusions are shown that deceive your senses. Illusions such as the Zöllner Illusion and the Poggendorff illusion confuse our bottom up processing by tricking our vision. However, our vision isn't the only sense that these illusions can confuse, blind individuals presented with raised versions of the same illusions are also confused by them. These illusions effect the visual and touch systems by confusing our bottom up processing by tricking out sight and touch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je1mkzRU5rc&t=64s

The Rotating Mask Illusion- Schizophrenia

A schizophrenic process is more of a bottom up process than a top down which is what we do. We are unable to see a hollow face at first because we have never seen that before in our prior experience. This illusion occurs because the brain interprets information based on context and previous experience, or top down processing. In schizophrenic people there is a dysconnectivity between the parietal cortex, where top down occurs, and the lateral occipital cortex, where bottom up occurs, which is why they see the hollow face right away. In healthy people the connectivity in these areas are increased which is why they see a regular rotating face

Philosophy of Perception

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