1. Sense Perception

2. Question Which person is more likely to see the Moon as it really is?
A person looking at the Moon from Earth? or
An astronaut looking at the Moon while standing on it?

3. Question Which person is more likely to see the Earth as it really is?
A person standing on the surface of the Earth? or
An astronaut looking at Earth from the Moon?

4. I call it as I see it The Snapshot model of perception
Common sense realism
My senses capture information and my brain records it.
And my memory recalls it when requested.

5. Snapshot Colours, smells, objects exist
Being observed does not change them
Empiricism – all knowledge is based on perception
Scientific method uses empirical observation

6. The eye sucks Image is upside down Nearly colour blind
Terrible depth of field
It jumps & refocuses several times a second
It should look like a crappy home video!

7. Why aren’t we living in a crappy home video?
Sensation – provided by the world via senses
Interpretation – provided by our brains

8. We interpret data depending on the context, what we already know, our assumptions, our biology... …data, information, knowledge… …we tend to simplify the data stream and group it according to patterns we already recognise

9. - pre-existing knowledge
Optical illusions
- pre-existing knowledge
Theory of Knowledge for the IB Diploma
Richard van de Lagemaat

10. Optical illusions
– background/forground

11. Optical illusions
– visual grouping

12. Optical illusions
– expectations

13. Perception is constructed
Zen saying:
"If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"

14. Zennoying
"Two monks were arguing about the temple flag waving in the wind. One said, "The flag moves." The other said, "The wind moves." They argued back and forth but could not agree.
The Sixth Ancestor said, "Gentlemen! It is not the wind that moves; it is not the flag that moves; it is your mind that moves." The two monks were struck with awe."
- The Mumonkan Case 29, translation by Robert Aitken

15. Zen saying:
"If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"
What if I steal your
fries and you don’t
see it?

16. Play video

17. Perception is attention dependant
Changes that affect
meaning are more likely
to be noticed
We notice what matters
to us.

18. Perception is culturally constructed
Gestalt
We simplify to what’s important
We percieve whole configurations
We put it in to context

19. Perception is culturally constructed
Context
Would the world’s greatest violinist busk in a subway?
Joshua Bell

20. Perception is culturally constructed
The Washington Post
1,097 people walked by
hardly anyone stopped
One man listened for a
few minutes a couple of kids stared
and one woman recognized him
“Pearls before Breakfast”
The Washington post, 2007

21. Perception is culturally constructed
Reason helps order & link relationships
- Cause & effect
Language helps catagorise & communicate
Can we understand something without a word for it?
e.g. cancer
Perception
Emotions help make value judgements
- Emotions improve memory

22. Perception is culturally constructed
So if meaning is culturally constructed, where does that leave us?
Science
Maths
Art
History