c

 

 
 

There have been a lot of developments in
the exploration of how different people
perceive different stimuli in this world.
One of the most well known tests is the
Thematic Apperception Test developed by
Christina D Morgan and Henry A Murry in
the 1930s at the Harvard Psychological
Clinic. This test consists of showing an
ambiguous picture to different people and
noting their responses to the stimuli. This
was considered a worthy experiment to
explore because it was felt that µif you ask
a number of observers to look at a
photograph...the variability of their reports
will be amazingly high.¶ (Leibowitz 1965:
p37) There are many factors that affect the
way in which humans perceive a stimulus and these include cultural differences and
individual differences. In order to explore how an ambiguous picture is interpreted
differently by different people I developed a questionnaire to ask the subjects
questions about their personality and cultural background as well as personal
statistics. The ambiguous picture I chose was originally a TAT card used by Morgan
and Murry in their own experiments. The picture is described as µa young man lying
prostrate on a bed and a young women standing outside the door with her head buried
in her hand.¶ Underneath the picture there was a caption which said "'Why did I marry
him?¶, she said dazed. µWhy?'". This caption gave too much information about the
picture and therefore I cut out the caption and just used µpicture c¶ as the stimulus for
my tests.

The results that I got from the question µwhat is going on in this picture?¶ showed
clear similarities and differences. The differences seen are subtle but can be related to
individual and cultural influences and many of the differences link to previous
research into individual perception. The similarities in the answers gained from the
experiment often refer to what is obviously shown within the picture and therefore
form the basis of the answer, without the individual¶s own personal insights. However
there were also general assumptions made in the answers which were repeatedly made
by the subjects shown picture c. Most of the answers claimed that the women was
µupset¶ or µdistraught¶ and that the man was either asleep or unconscious on the bed.
Both these points can be clearly seen within the picture and therefore these answers
had little to do with individual personality and background. The more generally
assumed answers were that the two people in the picture knew each other and that the
two people had had an argument. One person answered µthe lady is obviously upset¶,
showing that they were confident that the lady was upset from what the picture
showed. The same person then wrote µhaving possibly had an argument with her
husband,¶ by saying µpossibly¶ this suggests that they were not so sure about this
proposition because it is an assumption. As a result of the man and women being in
the same picture all of the persons asked thought that the man and women knew each
other. This information can not really be gained from just looking at the picture. Some
of the subjects were questioned afterwards why they felt that the women and man
knew each other. The majority of them answered that because the women was upset
and there was only the man in the picture they assumed that he had upset her and
therefore they knew each other.

The more interesting aspect of the experiment is where the differences lie within the
answers and how these differences can be related to personal and cultural influences. I
asked the subjects questions about there age, sex, religion, ethnicity, occupation,
marital status and personality to try and make links between what they think is going
on in the picture and their individuality. The first question I asked was what sex the
subject was and the answer to this showed clear differences between the way that
males and females looked at and interpreted the picture. This is because µobject
identification differs between men and women¶ (Vernon 1971: p633), and therefore
men and women decode a picture in different ways. An experiment was conducted by
Hess (1965) in which they eye movements of a man and a women were compared
when they were looking at the same picture. It was noted that the female observer paid
more attention to the male in the picture and the male observer paid more attention to
the female in the picture. The interesting point in my experiment was that the male
observers tended to mention the female in the picture first in their answer where as the
female observers tended to mention the male character in the picture first. Although,
as mentioned by Hess, this does show stereotypes of the way in which genders
interpret a picture it seems interesting that each gender was more concerned with the
situation surrounding the opposite sex in the stimuli. This therefore clearly showed a
difference in the way in which men and women interpret a picture and what they
notice first about the picture.

I asked people from a variety of backgrounds and of a variety of ethnicity to look at

picture c and explain what is going on in the picture. It was interesting to note that
those people who had been on a boat mainly interpreted the scene as being set on a
boat, where as those who had never been on a boat did not suggest this idea. Many of
the observers were quite positive that the scene was set on a boat saying µthe people
are on a boat¶ and µthey are on their honeymoon on a luxury ocean liner.¶ The second
extract I have used clearly shows how the observer even went as far as to decide what
type of boat they are travelling on (if they are) even though this is not at all clear from
the picture. In contrast to this a lot of those people who had not been on a boat before
did not interpret the scene as being set on a boat. This therefore emphasised that the
idea that the background a person has had does influence how they perceive a picture,
in this example the setting being interpreted differently because of personal
experiences. It can therefore be argued that there is a difference in the way in which
people interpreted the scene because µthe life history you have all affect what you
perceive in any stimulus.¶(Coren, Stanley, Ward & Emms 1994: p636)

There were also noticeable differences between age groups in what they thought the
relationship was between the man and the women was, which could be linked to
differences in the cultures of the observers answering the question µwhat is going on
in this picture?¶ The majority of older observers answered that the man and women in
the picture were definitely married. An observer who was seventy-two said µshe had
believed her µhusband¶ to be a gentleman.¶ An observer aged forty said µher
µhusband¶s¶ come home drunk.¶ In contrast to this many younger observers tended to
answer that the man and women were a couple and did not really state if they were
married or not. An eighteen-year-old observer said that µthe µcouple¶ are on a boat¶
and a twenty-two-year-old felt that µthe woman has had an argument with her
µpartner.¶ This discovery may also link to the cultural differences between age groups
because issues such as pre-marital sex are more widely accepted and discussed
nowadays compared to the past. This difference may be attributed to µhistory cultural
differences.... (which) may have dramatic consequences for perceptual processes¶
(Coren, Stanley, Ward & Emms 1994: p603), and would therefore be an individual
difference in the way in which one picture is perceived. Another interesting point was
that very few people from all age groups noticed the old fashioned clothing that the
women is wearing in the picture. One observer from the older age group explained
that µI assumed that they were husband and wife because of the old fashioned
clothing, from that time period the man would not have been alone with the girl.¶ This
shows also how people¶s knowledge aids in the way in which they perceive and
ambiguous picture.

Coinciding with this idea of differences between the ages groups in how they
perceived the picture there was also a noticeable difference in what people felt was
wrong with the man lying on the bed. Those older people, mainly over the age of
eighteen perceived the man as being drunk on the bed. A person of forty said that µhe
is an alcoholic¶ and another person of forty-nine thought that µhe is now comatose on
the bed.¶ Although not all of the older observers said the man was drunk, the majority
of them did seem to think that this was the problem. In contrast many of the younger
observers suggested other reasons for the man lying on the bed. A thirteen-year-old
suggested that µthe girl has pushed him so he has hit his head and stumbled in to bed.¶
Another different answer was from a fifteen year old who believed that µthe women is
a nurse who could not save the gentlemen.¶ These answers show that they younger
observers who are less experienced with alcohol and who would maybe know a lot
less about the effects of alcohol did not as often link the man¶s situation with over
indulgence in alcohol. Instead they tended to see the man as ill or hurt, which is their
explanation for him being sprawled on the bed in the picture. This discovery can be
linked to the argument that µperception...draws also on the perceiver¶s knowledge of
the world.¶ (Sekuler & Blake 1994: p453) The older observers appeared to notice the
bottle next to the man and decided that the man had drunk too much and was therefore
unconscious. In contrast the younger observers often failed to notice the bottle next to
the man and did not link the man¶s state to alcohol, which may relate to their lack of
experience with alcohol.

There have been suggestions that a person¶s aims and motivations can influence how
that person interprets a picture. An experiment was performed by Levine, Chein and
Murphy in 1942 in which there were two groups of observers shown the same picture.
One group was hungry and the other group was not. Those people in the group that
were hungry often saw food in the ambiguous picture where as the non-hungry group
tended not to see food in the picture. Therefore the hungry group appeared to be
motivated by their hunger and therefore perceived food within the picture. M.D.
Vernon who believes that µthe individual state of need is more likely to perceive
something which will satisfy his mind¶ also follows this argument. (Vernon 1971:
p180) The reason that I am mentioning motivation is because one person¶s answer to
what is going on in this picture was completely different from the rest of the answers
that I got from the other observer. This person is a very romantic person and tends to
see her life as one big drama, which was greatly reflected within her answer. I felt that
she might have been motivated by her desire for romance in her life. She said in her
answer µthe man could be part of the marines and the women a nurse on board his
boat.... I believe the couple had deeper feelings for each other than would be deemed
professional.¶ Therefore it seemed that this person¶s desire for romance in her life did
greatly influence what she perceived within the ambiguous picture.

Another discovery I made was that there were other links with personality in the way
in which different people reacted to the task which they were asked to do, which was
explain what is going in the picture. It is believed that µambiguous stimuli can evoke
responses that have the origin in the personality of the observer.¶ (Leibowtz 1965:
p38) When comparing the answers from an introverted person and a more extroverted
person I noticed that the introverted person was a lot more reluctant to give an answer
straight away. The introverted person kept asking questions as if they needed
reassuring that they were interpreting the picture in the correct way. However in
contrast the extroverted person tended to be more confident in their answers, saying
what ever they felt was right regardless of what anyone else might have said. The
introverted person tried to back up what he said by explaining what in the picture
made him come to his conclusion of what is going on in the picture. At one point the
introverted person said µThey are on a cruise (hence the porthole)¶ which suggests that
he was insecure about saying what he personally felt was going on in case he got it
wrong. The introverted person spoke only a few lines about what was going on in the
picture. The extroverted person said much more about what they thought was going
on, creating more of a story than an answer and using a lot more of their imagination.
These differences relate to the personality of each person because the more confident
person was more willing to give their own interpretation of the ambiguous picture.
Else Frenkel-Brunswik conducted an experiment in 1951 where subjects were placed
in a dark room where only a point of light was visible. Most people saw the light sway
in various directions, but some people reported that the light moved in a constant
direction from trail to trail and to a constant number of inches. The people who
reported the trailing light have been described as having a µlow tolerance of
ambiguity¶, requiring more stablity that most and quickly manufacturing stability in
situations of ambiguity. In contrast, those who take longer to establish stability when
faced with ambiguity have a µhigh tolerance of ambiguity¶. From the experiment
results it would appear that the extrovert who quickly gave a long and imaginative
answer has a low tolerance of ambiguity. In contrast the introvert who took a long
time to answer the question and kept asking his own questions has a higher tolerance
of ambiguity. The influence of personality therefore also plays a role in the way in
which different people interpret an ambigious picture.

In conclusion it would appear that there are many factors that determine the way in
which different people interpret an ambigious picture such as picture c that I used for
my experiment. Although I only asked twenty-five people to conduct my experiment,
there were clearly simularities and differences between the answers that I got. There
were a few simularities, but surprisingly a lot more differences in the answers I got
and these differences tended to be quite subtle rather than very obvious. What I found
was interesting that was from just twenty-five answers I could detect differences in
the answers due to many factors including age, sex, culture, background and
personality. From the results of the experiment it can therefore be considered true that
µwhat you percieve in any situation is not necessarily the same as what is percieved by
the person next to you¶ and that in conclusion µwho you are, the kind of person you
are.... affect what you perceive¶ (Coren, Stanley, Ward & Emms 1994: p636) when
shown an ambiguous picture.
V  

˜? Coren, Lawrence. S, Ward. M and Emms J

(1994): Ô



 
, 3rd Edn. Fort Worth,
TX: Harcourt Brace College Publishers,
˜? Chandler, Daniel: (1998): 'Visual Perception' [WWW
document] V http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/modules/TF
12710
˜? Leibowitz, Herschel (1965): ] 
 
. New York:
Macmillian
˜? Morgan, W. G. (nd): 'Thematic Apperception Test' [WWW
document] VV http://web.utk.edu/~wmorgan/tat/tattxt.ht
m
˜? Sekuler, R. & Randolf, B. (1994)
 
, 3rd Edn.
New York: McGraw-Hill
˜? Vernon, M. D. (1971): @   
 
, 2nd
Edn. Harmondsworth: Penguin
?

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 c
 
  

This page illustrates that our visual perception cannot always be trusted. The components of
an object can distort the perception of the complete object. Our mind is the final arbiter of
truth. Most optical illusions are the result of 1) incongruent design elements at opposite
ends of parallel lines, 2) influence of background patterns on the overall design, 3)
adjustment of our perception at the boundaries of areas of high contrast, 4) afterimages
resulting from eye movements or from kinetic displays, or 5) inability to interpret the spatial
structure of an object from the context provided by the picture. How we perceive things has
a direct correlation to how we react. Games like bingo and poker provide only partial
information and the players have to make decisions based on their intuition. A hand can be
perceived as either weak or strong depending on the strategies, such as betting and
bluffing, that are used to intimidate opponents.

The Parthenon

Optical illusions have been studied for millenia. The ancient Greeks used a technique known
as Ê
 which incorporates a slight convexity in the columns of the Parthenon to
compensate for the illusion of concavity created by parallel lines. Many of the following
illusions have been popularized by psychologists and artists like Hering, Ehrenstein, Meyer,
Zöllner, Müller-Lyer, Poggendorf, and Escher.

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How can the man go up all the time? Can such a staircase be built as a real object??
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You can go from corner V to corner  by climbing the stairs or by going around a level
plane.?
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The vertical zigzag patterns disrupt our horizontal perception.?

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Color the elephant with crayons or colored pencils making sure to stay within the lines.?

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 Click the image to display it in a new page for printing.?

c" 
  This triangle cannot be built as a real object.
The triangle with dice is an illusion by Japanese artist Shigeo Fukuda
Can you find a relationship between this triangle and a Möbius strip?
( Hint: Assume that the thickness of the strip is the same as the width of the strip,
and that instead of twisting 180 degrees before joining, there is only a 90 degree twist. )?

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Our intuition about perspective influences what we see.?

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Incongruous design elements on opposite ends of the parallel lines create confusion.?

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Without depth clues, this line drawing has two different three-dimensional interpretations.?

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The shade of the background influences how we perceive it. All squares are uniformly
shaded,
but each square seems lighter on its left edge than on its right edge.?

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The image in the lower right corner is upside-down, and the image to the right is rotating.
Our interpretation of bumps and indentations is conditioned by the fact that objects are
generally illuminated from the top. The rotating image may be interpreted as a wobbly
elongated object viewed from the end (like a finger pointed in your direction) or as a ball
rotating inside a washing machine viewed through the porthole. The ambiguity is caused
because we don't have any clues to decide whether the bright portion of the image is above
or below the display plane.

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Apparent movement of the streams is created by afterimages
as our eyes shift to examine the picture.?
?

© 1998, Sarcone and Waeber?




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This image has only three colors. What appears to be blue and green is actually the same
color.
The altered perception is caused because the eyes combine adjacent colors.?

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The background of concentric circles makes the squares appear distorted.?

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The circles appear to rotate when you move your head closer and further away from the
screen while looking at the dot in the center. Our peripheral vision interprets the relative
increase or decrease of the image in the retina as rotational motion of the slanted lines.

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There are no curved lines in these figures. You can use a ruler to check it out.
The diagonal patterns created by the tiny squares distort the perception of the pictures.?

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The retina is the part of the eye covered with receptors that respond to light. A small
portion of the retina where the optic nerve connects to the brain has no receptors. An image
that falls on this region will not be seen. Close your right eye. With your left eye, look at
the h below. Slowly move your head closer or further away from the screen while looking at
the h. The V will disappear when your head is approximately 50 cm (20 in) from the screen.
You can repeat the experiment with your right eye by looking at the V.

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An afterimage is a visual impression that remains in the retina after the initial stimulus is
removed. The afterimage always has colors that are complementary to those of the original
image. Look steadily at the cross in the center of the picture to see an afterimage.

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 Created by Jeremy L. Hinton ca. 2005 as "Lilac Chaser"?

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?

Take two pieces of heavy paper. On one of them make three holes with a pin spaced about
2 mm apart (1/16 inch) from each other forming a triangle. On the other one piece of
paper, make a single hole with the pin. Place the card with the three holes next to your eye
and look through the holes at the card with one hole. You will see three holes instead of
one, and the pattern of holes will be upside down.

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Stereoscopic vision makes depth perception possible. By crossing your eyes while looking at
these pictures, the brain perceives a combined three-dimensional image. (Hint: Keep your
eyes level with the pictures. Place your fingertip between the pictures just below the sun
and R

  Ê
 while you bring your finger toward your eyes. When your fingertip
is approximately 7 inches (20 cm) from your eyes, the pictures in the background will
combine into a 3-dimensional picture.)

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Which of the following two images of the tower of Pisa seems to be leaning more?

The images are actually identical, but the tower on the right seems to lean more because
the human visual system treats the two images as one scene. Our brains are conditioned to
expect parallel towers to converge toward a common vanishing point, but because the tower
on the right does not converge, our visual system interprets that it is leaning at a different
angle. A common example of this conditioning is the way 3D movies and 3D TVs trick our
minds into believing that images are actually coming out of the screen, when in fact they
are not. Our minds are conditioned to believe 3D images move in 3 dimensions. With a bit
of technical help, we can trick our minds into visualizing this on a 2D screen. Below is a
perspective drawing with three vanishing points of what our eyes expect.


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Hold your head steady and fix your eyes on the dot in the center of the picture. The colored
dots will seem to disappear in a few seconds. The effect is due to Ê
 R
Ê which
occurs when the afterimage of an object cancels the stimulus of the object on the retina.
The effect is most pronounced when the objects do not have well-defined edges that are
detectable by small eye movements.

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This is another example of incongruous design elements on opposite ends of parallel lines.?

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Design patterns make the circles appear to be distorted.?

The circles above appear distorted due to the black and white designs which are at various
angles relative to the tangent of the circles.

The image below consists of circles formed from alternating black and white squares angled
at 15 degrees relative to the tangent of the circles. The circles appear to form helical
patterns because the squares in each of the adjacent concentric circles incline in opposite
directions.
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The squares labeled A and B are the same shade of gray. This can be verified by joining the
squares marked A and B with two vertical stripes of the same shade of gray. The illusion
that B is lighter than A is caused by the relative contrast of the surrounding dark squares
and by the fact that our vision compensates for the shadow of the cylinder. Created by
Edward H. Adelson, Professor of Vision Science at MIT.

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Although there are only circles with sections taken out of them, our eyes strive to see
triangles. The sides of the triangles may appear curved when the angles of the sections do
not add up to 180 degrees.

A portion of misplaced lines can be clearly identified as forming a circle, even when there is
no outline of a circle.?
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Animals which blend with the color and texture of their environment are more likely to
survive either as prey or as predators. Camouflaged prey have a greater chance of surviving
by avoiding detection, whereas camouflaged predators can hunt more successfully if they
can approach the prey without being seen.

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The coloration of zebras makes them very conspicuous in the African plains, but the pattern
of black and white stripes makes it very hard for predators to distinguish one individual in
the middle of the herd. Do you see eight or nine zebras?

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The figure in the top can be interpreted as a cube or as a corner. The darker shading of the
bottom section reinforces the interpretation of a cube illuminated from the top. The figures
below it add some elements that help us to disambiguate.
?

 

Afterimages of complementary colors create apparent movement in our peripheral vision
as our eyes shift across the page.?

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 Derived from a design by A. Kitaoka?

 
?

Silhouettes may have ambiguous interpretations. In this example, the silhouette of the lady
may be interpreted as a front view or as a back view. ?
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On what leg is the dancer standing? The direction of rotation of silhouettes may be
ambiguous. This dancer created by Nobuyuki Kayahara stands on her left leg when she
appears to be rotating clockwise, but on her right leg when she appears to rotate counter-
clockwise. ?
 Put Mouse Pointer Here to Animate?
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People with normal color vision can perceive numbers formed by patterns of colored dots in
every circle. If you do not see some of the numbers, you should have your eyes checked
and consider working in a job where color discrimination is not critical.

Approximately 6%-8% of people of European descent, 4%-6% of people of Asian descent,

and 2%-4% of people of African descent have some type of defective color vision. Images
based on Tests for Colour Blindness by Dr. Shinobu Ishihara.
 25 29

45 56

6 8

As an experiment, look at these circles with blue-red 3D glasses, first with one eye, and
then with the other. Some of the numbers will not be visible! Also, use the glasses to look at
the word color test below and explain the results.

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In this test +(+@V*V 

, say aloud the COLOR of each word.?

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This is a type of psycholinguistic test that poses some difficulty because the portion of the
brain that handles language has the conflicting tasks of verbalizing the color of the written
words while ignoring the meaning of words representing colors.

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On December 16, 1997 hundreds of Japanese children suffered seizures and convulsions
following their viewing of a "Pocket Monsters" cartoon on television. Most children said they
felt sick and had vision problems during a scene where the entire background was flashing
red and blue. Additional children ended up in the hospital after the cartoon segment was
replayed in the evening news. Neurologists believe that the children suffered photosensitive
epilepsy induced by the flashing. Abnormal EEG can be triggered by flickering lights in a
small percentage of persons when the flickering frequency is 5-10 hertz for children and 15-
20 hertz for older people. Excessive TV watching can damage a child's development and
education.

Warning: Do not place your mouse cursor here if you are subject to seizures.
Put Mouse Pointer Here to Animate?

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Moiré patterns are formed when two grids or line drawings are superimposed. The
intersections of the lines create new patterns not present in the originals. This figure
contains two drawings consisting of lines radiating from a point. One drawing is fixed and
the other moves thus generating a changing interference pattern of circles that cross both
points.
The animation can be stopped or re-started by pressing SHIFT and clicking on the pattern.
You can also click-and-drag to control the motion of the pattern manually.

Java Applet from David Eck?

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The colored triangular pieces are identical, but they can be rearranged to form two "13 by 5
right triangles" that have different surface areas. This is a visual paradox that can be
explained mathematically.

Click here to go to the Puzzles page which has the explanation.?

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Humpty Dumpty is about to take a great fall because he just found out that the two red
lines are equal in length. Take a ruler and connect the tops or bottoms of the red lines. The
brain interprets the converging lines as providing perspective. This interpretation is so
powerful that it is virtually impossible to overcome its influence.

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Fraunhofer diffraction is a type of optical wave diffraction that occurs when field waves are
passed through an aperture or slit, causing the size of an observed aperture image to
change due to the far-field location of observation. This image shows how the slits of
vertical blinds in a window bend the rays of the sun and influence the shapes of the
shadows projected on the wall. As the ears approach the shadows of the vertical blinds, the
shadow of the ears stretches toward the shadow of the vertical blind to produce elongated
ear shadows. The shadow of the head seems to grow horns at the points where the
shadows of the blinds intersect the head.

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These people are shifting places trying to hide. Sometimes you can count 13 people and
sometimes 12. Who is missing when the count is 12?

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Special effects produced by computer animation enhance many modern films. Click the link
below to see some short clips of Star Wars light sabers in action.

Special Effects?


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A subliminal effect is a sensory stimulus that is beneath the threshold of consciousness, but
that causes us to respond instinctively in some way. Subliminal effects are exploited in
horror films which use creepy music that builds up gradually to maximize the effect of an
unexpected visual surprise, e.g., Jaws (1975), Psycho (1960). Marketing campaigns
sometimes use subliminal visual effects that tantalize or excite us to counteract negative
attitudes about a product or to increase the appeal of a product. The following figure is a
portion of a picture that was widely published in advertisements during the mid 1990's. Do
you know what it is?

Click here for the answer?

V @ ?

Optical Instruments Blind Spot

Color Blindness Graphic Design
Visual Paradoxes Subliminal Effects
Movie Special Effects Computer Animation

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