1. Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture.
Focus on the cube

2. Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture
what is odd about this?

3. Old woman or young woman?

4. Look at this picture for 3 seconds then draw it from memory

5. A vase or two faces?

6. Visual Perception The question
Is the world OUT THERE to be seen? Bottom Up perception (Gibson)
If perception is innate Then we draw the world as it is

7. Visual Perception Do we construct the world that we see?
Top Down perception (Gregory)
If perception is learned Then we draw what we THINK we see and what we think we see has been learned

8. Top Down visual perception?
The ‘switch’ you see is evidence for GREGORY

9. IS the left vertical really shorter?
more evidence for Top Down?

10. And what on earth is this?
more evidence for Top Down?

11. And think about this……. The red squares ARE the same colour and size
So why do they look different?

12. Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture
The question
Does culture affect the way we SEE pictures (nurture)
Cross cultural studies can help to answer this question

13. Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture
The method
DEREGOWSKI performed a review of a series of CROSS CULTURAL STUDIES

14. Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture
Study (1) late 19th century
Robert Laws & Mrs Donald Frazer
they were missionaries
showed Africans ‘European style’ Pictures (e.g. of elephants)

15. Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture
The Africans were afraid of them….. they thought they were real elephants

16. Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture
Study (2) William Hudson
“the key to understanding pictures lies in depth cues”
WE LEARN three rules

17. Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture
DEPTH CUES - Rule ONE
larger objects are perceived as nearer

18. Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture
DEPTH CUES - Rule TWO
overlap - obscured objects seen as further away

19. Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture
DEPTH CUES - Rule THREE
perspective - lines converge as they get further away (railway lines)

20. William Hudson’s famous picture Spearing the antelope or the elephant?

21. Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture
Showed this picture to Africans
when asked “what is the man doing” participants could not say which animal was ‘being speared’
(did not seem to use depth cues)
classed as two dimensional viewers

22. Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture
Study (3) William Hudson
Zambian children - shown picture of two squares connected by a ‘rod’

23. Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture
Study (3) William Hudson
Given sticks and modelling clay to ‘build a model’ of what they saw

24. Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture
Study (3) William Hudson
2-D viewers built two dimensional models
British primary school children usually try to build 3 dimensional models (boxes)

25. Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture
Study (4) The impossible trident
Zambian primary school children asked to draw this figure
2-D viewers found it easiest!

26. Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture
Study (4) The impossible trident
3-D viewers found it harder - they spent longer looking at it (Why?)
Are you a 2-D or a 3-D viewer

27. Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture
Study (5) Richard GREGORY
asked unskilled African viewers to adjust a spot of light so that it lay at the same depth as an object in the
‘spearing the antelope picture’

29. Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture
Study (5) example - try this out
Where will the pointer be if it is on the nearest object?
2-D viewers cannot do this

30. Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture
Study (6) split style drawing
African children prefer the split style

33. Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture
The cross cultural studies
What can we conclude?
If different cultures use different rules to construct their pictures it follows that one culture may not be able to interpret the drawings of another culture

34. Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture
Do YOU understand these symbols?
8 9 b v
& * ( N
what do they mean?
Would they be universally understood?
(by all cultures)

35. Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture
What do you see? Duck or rabbit?
Evidence for Gregory or Gibson?

36. Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture
Remember the question !!
Is the world OUT THERE to be seen? Bottom Up perception
(Gibson=nature)
Do we construct the world that we see? Top Down perception
(Gregory=nurture)

37. Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture
As you view this is your brain testing a hypothesis?

38. Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture
The end