Philosophy of Perception

https://www.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/people/matt.davis/cmabridge/ This article was the basis of my presentation in class, but due to the 5 minute time limit I was only able to mention a fraction of the information. The page focuses on the original "copypasta" text: Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. He breaks this down sentence by sentence, first doing a quick search to see if there's actually research being done at Cambridge University on the topic (there's not). He lists a multitude of studies that are relevant to the orders of the letters, the impact these jumbles have on reading speed, and more. The article makes a strong case that we read wo...

First of all, I do not condone the usage of any of the drugs discussed in the article. I am simply interested in their effects on the mind and our perception of the world. As we have learned throughout the course of the semester our mind and sensory systems are constantly interacting and rely on each other to create each individual perception of the world. This particular article is incredibly interesting. Using Magnetoencephalography (MEG), a neuroimaging technique used to map brain activity by recording magnetic fields produced by naturally occurring electrical signals in the brain, these researchers were able to discover an increased diversity in spontaneous neural signals when under the effect of psychoactive doses of LSD, psilocybin, and ketamine. More importantly, these neural signals were occurring more often than during states of normal waking consciousness. Because of how intertwined our consciousness and sensory systems are, it is reasonable to conne...

This video discusses a rare condition known as Alice in Wonderland syndrome in which sufferers experience an altered perception of size.  Sufferers will struggle to accurately perceive the size of objects, people, and even themselves, often perceiving things as either very small or unrealistically large. Referenced briefly in our first reading, "What Do the Blind See When They Dream," Alice in Wonderland Syndrome is one of many conditions/disorders in which sufferers experience drastic or hallucinatory disruptions to perception, highlighting the ways in which our senses can deceive us.

Being a Beast A passionate naturalist explores what it’s really like to be an animal—by living like them How can we ever be sure that we really know the other? To test the limits of our ability to inhabit lives that are not our own, Charles Foster set out to know the ultimate other: the non-humans, the beasts. And to do that, he tried to be like them, choosing a badger, an otter, a fox, a deer, and a swift. He lived alongside badgers for weeks, sleeping in a sett in a Welsh hillside and eating earthworms, learning to sense the landscape through his nose rather than his eyes. He caught fish in his teeth while swimming like an otter; rooted through London garbage cans as an urban fox; was hunted by bloodhounds as a red deer, nearly dying in the snow. And he followed the swifts on their migration route over the Strait of Gibraltar, discovering himself to be strangely connected to the birds. A lyrical, intimate, and completely radical look at the life of animals—human and other—...

https://study.com/academy/lesson/self-perception-theory-definition-and-examples.html This link relates to how perception can be pointed inward upon ourselves. Addressing this is the Self Perception theory, which plays the idea that people create their attitudes by observing their own behavior and then making an assumption on what attitudes must have caused it. I found this video to relate well to perception, but also to exemplify just how powerful our brains truly can be. An interesting concept, I thought. I hope you do too!

This video relates to time perception. Upon research, I found that how we perceive time changes depending on the situation that we are in. One example of this is when frantic music is played in the car, the driver tends to drive at an increased speed as a result, as time has somehow seemed to speed up.  I thought this was a great example of how our senses and perceptions play tricks on ourselves. Whether it be an evolutionary benefit, or merely just our senses acting up, the changing of time is a common occurrence that exemplifies the sometimes unreliability of what we are perceiving.

        After seeing the rubber hand video, I started thinking about phantom limb syndrome which can occur after a person has an amputation. I found a video about a man who is missing an arm, yet "experiences" a sensation of pain in the place where his hand would be. The video explains how the brain does not really know that the limb is no longer there and so sends signals directed toward his hand, trying to clench it. If this man did have a hand, his muscles would send feedback to the brain telling him to slow down the motion, however since he has no hand, the brain sends more signals resulting in a positive feedback loop. The solution is a mirror box. The man places the hand he does have in a box with a mirror, and his hand is reflected so it looks as if he has two. The ultimately tricks the brain with visual feedback and relieves the pain felt. This illusion shows us how easily the brain can be deceived, and emphasizes how our sensations can be psychological.