Cognitive Straightening 2: Exploring Illusions and Distortions

Illusion of perception in psychology.

Mirages, distorted sounds and images are all illusions of perception. They arise against the background of the fact that a person distorts the interpretation of stimuli perceived through the senses. The impressions he receives at the same time force him to draw incorrect conclusions about the properties of the stimulus object. The visible, audible, and tangible in a distorted form differs from the real stimulus. The discrepancy can be eliminated through measurement and analysis.

Illusion of perception in psychology

The human psyche is prone to incorrect perception of situations, sensations, and images. Psychology considers illusions of perception as phenomena that arise against the background of mental and physical well-being, as well as in pathological conditions.

Distorted perception can affect all sensory systems. The most common form of misperception is visual illusion . Distortions of sounds, tastes, and smells also often occur. Tactile distortion occurs relatively rarely.

The concept of “perceptual illusion” should not be confused with hallucinations. The latter arise without any real stimulus and are exclusively a product of the psyche. Perceptual illusions arise in response to the influence of a stimulus located in the external environment.

Illusions can be caused by physical factors (for example, distortion of the shape of objects when looking at them through a prism or water). The reasons for the appearance of illusions of perception can also be of a psychological nature. In this case, they are formed on the basis of a person’s experience, his attitudes, emotional state, and the tasks that face him.

Revaluation of vertical lines

Due to historically accumulated experience, on the one hand, and due to the location of the line connecting a person’s eyes in the horizontal plane, on the other, a person has the ability to more accurately determine horizontal distances by eye than the height of objects. Therefore, most people have the ability to exaggerate vertical extents compared to horizontal ones, and this also leads to visual illusions. The group of illusions under consideration also includes illusions of filled space. The filled space through which the eye slides horizontally lengthens. So, for example, at sea, all distances seem smaller, since the boundless expanse of the sea is an undivided space. Buildings decorated with figures and ornaments seem to us larger than their actual size.

Main types

Illusions of perception can be of several varieties. The main types include background distortions:

• lack of attentiveness;
• affect;
• pareidolia (the appearance of illusory images when viewing objects);
• optical-geometric distortions.

In addition to optical illusions, other types of illusions may occur:

• sound;
• physiological (for example, after lifting objects of different weights in the right and left hands);
• psychological (related to attitudes);
• verbal (perception of conversations is distorted);
• tactile;
• olfactory;
• taste.

There are also illusions in which the perception of time is disrupted.

Illusions of inattention

This type of distortion occurs when a person is not sufficiently concentrated or lacks information about a subject. The illusion usually appears in conditions that make objective perception difficult - when the room or street is noisy, dark, or the object of attention is at a great distance.

Often, illusions of inattention arise due to the fact that a person has certain expectations and is concentrated on isolating a specific object (sound, image, etc.) from the environment. Thus, a mushroom picker who is determined to have a successful trip to the forest may notice a mushroom under a leaf or branch of a tree. As soon as the mushroom picker switches his attention to other objects, the illusion of inattention arises - he stops seeing the mushrooms.

Representatives of different professions may also experience the illusion of inattention. So, the doctor pays attention to signs of illness noticeable in a person’s appearance and behavior. The photographer evaluates the photogenicity of the client, and the linguist perceives the other person from the point of view of the purity and correctness of his speech.

Psychological attitudes and superstitions are the most common reasons for the appearance of the illusion of inattention in everyday life. So, if a student fails in one subject, then the teacher of this school discipline perceives the student as a failure as a whole.

Illusions of affective nature

A strong emotional shock, reaching the level of affect, can cause illusions of perception. Most often, the emotions that provoke illusions are fear, severe tension, and anxiety.

Under the influence of strong fear, a person who finds himself in the forest at night will see frightening figures in the shadows of bushes and trees; he will perceive the creaking of trees and the rustling of leaves as a threat. Illusions of affect are a normal reaction of a healthy person that arises in a potentially dangerous or alarming situation.

At the age of 4-6 years, children often experience such illusions. They see monsters or other frightening characters in a dark room. For children, the occurrence of such illusions is a normal stage of psychological development associated with the formation of abstract thinking and fantasy.

Mental disorders can also be the cause of affective illusions. Thus, a person with generalized anxiety disorder and a high level of suspicion perceives random glances from passers-by on the street as an attempt at surveillance, and the conversations of other people as a desire to gossip about him.

Pareidolic illusions

Distortions of this type occur when a person examines real objects or images. The appearance of pareidolia cannot be predicted; they occur suddenly.

In most cases, illusory images are fantastic in nature. For example, in a cloud in the sky a person sees figures of animals, outlines of angels, etc.

Often, pareidolic illusions appear against the background of severe alcohol intoxication, after the use of psychoactive drugs.

Pareidolic illusions can be widespread. It happens that a large group of people sees the same images at the same time. This happens when people look at paintings, observe natural phenomena, or look at very famous natural and architectural objects.

One such object that causes mass pareidolia is an image of the Martian region of Cydonia. The photo shows an area with several mesas that form a bizarre landscape. Most people who look at a photograph of Cydonia see a man's face in it.

A similar phenomenon (pareidolia) can be traced in the way people describe clusters of celestial bodies called constellations. Scientists consider the Loch Ness monster, space aliens, ghosts in ancient castles and other paranormal phenomena to be the result of pareidolic illusions of perception.

The exact cause of the pareidolia phenomenon is not known. According to cosmologist Carl Sagan, the ability to recognize images at great distances in poor visibility conditions has been necessary for humans since ancient times. Pareidolia when meeting another person made it possible to understand whether it was one of our own or a stranger, and whether it was worth fearing. In the process of evolutionary development, the recognition mechanism was mastered so well that people learned to notice patterns in objects where they were absent.

The phenomenon of pareidolia is actively used in the creation of advertising products and industrial design. It is believed that objects with outlines similar to a human face or body are better perceived by consumers. The design of the glass bottle for Coca-Cola (Contour Bottle) traces the use of pareidolia in the form of the outlines of a female body.

For consumers to perceive anthropomorphic products well, the outline of a person must be barely visible. If they are too obvious, then the pareidolia product will cause disgust and will seem too intrusive, and sometimes scary.

Robot developers note that the more similar their products are to a living person, the more negative emotions they cause in users. A robot that is as similar to a human as possible is perceived as an anomalous phenomenon or a dead man who has come to life.

Optical-geometric distortions

Illusions of perception can arise due to the anatomical features of the structure and functioning of the eye. The essence of optical-geometric illusions is that the real sizes of objects that a person sees and the perceived ones do not coincide.

The simplest example of an optical-geometric illusion is a picture with drawn lines. They are the same size and have arrows at the ends. The line with the arrow facing inward appears shorter. The one with the end pointing outward appears longer.

The occurrence of optical-geometric illusions is not associated with mental disorders. Distortions are observed by all healthy people, which is why illusions are called physiological.

Causes of illusions of perception

Scientists have not yet provided an explanation for most of the illusions of perception. It is believed that some distortions are related to the integrity of the perception of objects, which is disrupted due to:

• sporadic errors in the functioning of the central nervous system against the background of severe fatigue, stress, lack of sleep, intoxication;
• high sensory load, in which a person is influenced by stimuli simultaneously from several sources. Such irritants may be bright light, high noise levels, high or low air temperature;
• intersensory effect - it occurs when the senses combine and produce a common impression. So, in a good restaurant, a person is influenced by calm, muffled music, the smell and taste of food, and a beautiful interior. Together, all these factors enhance the sensations - food seems even more delicious;
• intersensory interaction - simultaneous coordinated action of the senses, as a result of which a holistic idea of ​​an event or object arises.

The phenomenon of illusion of perception in psychology is also considered as a consequence of mutual stimulation of one sensory system by another. For example, when listening to music, visual images arise.

The cause of illusions can also be psychological and social factors:

• unconscious desires - they become the basis for the formation of a false image of information coming through the senses;
• past experience - a person tends to perceive objects as he is used to seeing, hearing, feeling them;
• emotional state - mood affects how a person perceives the same facts, events, phenomena. Under the influence of heavy emotions, a negative perception of most events and objects is formed.
• personal characteristics, self-esteem, susceptibility or immunity to outside influence - these factors can influence the formation of distortions of perception;
• stereotypes of thinking, stable beliefs - they force a person to consider images, objects and events from a familiar point of view.

In order not to fall into the web of illusions, it is worth considering events and objects from different positions, applying analysis, and, if possible, checking the truth of perception by measurement.

"Whole" and "part"

Many erroneous visual impressions are due to the fact that we perceive the figures and their parts not separately, but always in some relationship with the other figures surrounding them, some background or setting. This section includes, perhaps, the largest number of visual illusions encountered in practice. All of them can be divided into five groups.

Firstly, when comparing two figures, one of which is actually smaller than the other, we mistakenly perceive all the parts of the smaller figure as smaller, and all the parts of the larger figure as larger (“the whole is larger, and its parts are larger”). This can be clearly seen, say, in the example of a ruler: the left segment on it seems to us longer than the right, although in fact they are equal. This is due to the psychological aspect of perception. This happens because we mistakenly transfer the properties of a figure to its parts.

Secondly, there are cases of illusions of the same kind with the only difference being that the judgment about the visual image goes in the opposite direction: not from the “whole” to the “part,” but from the “part” to the “whole.”

Thirdly, when perceiving figures as a whole and their individual parts (lines, angles, individual details), visual illusions can occur due to the so-called general psychological law of contrast, i.e. the setting, the surroundings of these parts and their relationship with other parts of the figure. Here's an example: in the picture on the left, the circle closest to the sides of the acute angle appears larger than the other, while their sizes are the same.

Fourthly, illusions are known, the reason for which lies in the assimilation (assimilation) of one part of the figure to another. In the given figure, the straight tangent to all circles of different radii appears to be curved, since we involuntarily liken it to the upper curvilinear boundary. (S. Thompson illusion).

Finally, we should point out the last group of illusions associated with the visual perception of the whole and the part, the reason for which lies in the inability of the visual apparatus to sometimes isolate a part from the whole due to the complexity of the situation. For example, in a chaos of lines of the same color, brightness and thickness, it is not immediately possible to identify (recognize) a specific figure.

Examples of illusions in psychology

Widely known examples of perceptual distortions are fractal pictures. In fact, the images are static, but if you look closely at their central part, it seems as if it is moving.

Cognitive illusions manifest themselves through certain stereotypes, for example:

• fat people are good-natured, thin people are evil;
• the dog is angry, the cat is affectionate;
• dolphins save people;
• in life you need to achieve success (plant a tree, raise a son, ...);
• The necessary knowledge can only be obtained by entering an educational institution.

You can encounter illusion in everyday life. For example, if you look closely at the railway track, it seems that at a distance it is narrower than up close.

In psychology, some illusions are used for diagnosis. Thus, Rorschach blots are an example of a deliberately induced illusion used to reveal the intellectual abilities and other characteristics of the subject.

Irina Sherbul

Changing terrain and perspective

Interesting visual illusions occur under the conditions of the relief or depth of the pattern that we see. The emergence of these illusions is associated with the ability of the eye to see objects at different distances, with the ability to perceive space by the brightness of objects, by their shadows and by the number of intermediate objects. On the other hand, these illusions also arise in the process of comprehending what is visible. The brain, perceiving an object, distorts the relief image we see.

An example of this is the given figure: the cube sometimes seems visible from above, sometimes from the side; The open book sometimes seems to be depicted with the spine towards us, sometimes with the spine away from us. This happens both at our request and involuntarily, and sometimes even against our desire.

We often see parallel lines converging in the distance (railway tracks, highways, etc.). This phenomenon is called perspective. A person transfers the perspective perception of space, developed by the centuries-old evolution of vision, to the paintings and photographs he examines, which depict objects at different distances. In the picture, the corridor seems voluminous precisely because of the perspective: the corridor in it goes deep, and the floor consists of rectangles.

Nature of occurrence

Illusions in psychology are phenomena of the human psyche caused by a number of natural causes.

Such reasons include:

• natural physical phenomena of a natural nature (optical distortions of reality);
• suggestion of surrounding people, forming a distorted perception of objects or phenomena;
• exposure to medications, drugs, strong alcohol;
• exposure to physical pathologies (high temperature, hypothermia);
• nervous breakdowns, strong feelings, stressful situations;
• mental disorders or diseases;
• synesthesia (mixing of sensory sensations during the creative process: the perception of a non-existent color when composing or listening to a melody, the formation of sounds while writing works while contemplating images or landscapes).

Evolution

To a certain extent, becoming a man is about getting rid of illusions. The older you get, the more sober and meaningful you begin to look at the world. For example, in his youth a man may think that he is strong. But a couple of unsuccessful fights proves that it is not at all. So, one’s own opinion about strength was only an illusion, and getting rid of it in this case makes it possible to keep one’s nose (or ear, or hand) safe and sound. Thus, getting rid of illusions is also an element of evolution. If you are sure that your wife is faithful to you, and suddenly it turns out that she is cheating, this is an unpleasant destruction of the illusion. What to do in this case? Become smarter, more cunning, stronger. One of my friends told me that before he got behind the wheel for the first time, he was sure that he wouldn’t be able to drive. But he sat down and drove off. This gave me confidence. That is, liberation from illusions can be pleasant.

Illusory problems

What does it mean to have illusions?

Psychology refers to this definition as an incorrect perception of reality or a phenomenon, which is most often based on an overly optimistic view of what is happening.

For example, something negative has already happened, but you still think you can prevent it.

However, there are also illusory problems that do not really exist. For example, a person is convinced that there is no road through some mountain pass, but there is one, and it is completely surmountable. Or it seems to him that he has an incurable disease, but his health is fine.

In both cases, you just need to force yourself to realistically assess the situation.

What is the danger of escaping reality into the world of illusions? Sometimes the reality of a person’s life is such that he tries to escape from it , not notice problems and difficulties, and not remember losses and failures.

It happens that an individual seeks oblivion in alcohol or drugs , but this is no longer an illusion in its pure form, but an addiction.

Departure into the world of illusions can be expressed as follows:

1. A person is immersed in the world of music, literature, and fine arts ; a vivid example of this is the literally fanatical movement of fans of Tolkien’s work.
2. There is something more dangerous about leaving: a person begins to live in the past , not paying attention to the present; this is especially often observed after the death of loved ones.
3. A disastrous modern example is immersion, to the point of complete denial of reality, in computer games .
4. Often a person begins to indulge in excessive consumption; this kind of care is also an illusion.

If this happens after experiencing stress, loss, disappointment, but after some time the person returns to reality , this state is not dangerous.

But a prolonged retreat into the world of illusions threatens to end in mental illness; here, qualified help from psychologists is needed.

History of discovery

The perception of reality began to receive attention in 1899. Illusions were familiar to people before, but were perceived as something mystical and frightening.

The first researchers in this direction conducted experiments to prove that illusions are based on people's expectations. These experiments involved lifting weights while blind. The buckets contained the same amount of sand, but people were told that they would now be allowed to lift the bucket even heavier. Participants in the experiment believed that buckets of equal weight were heavier than each other.

The first scientist to conduct such experiments was R. Muller. He asked people to estimate the same weight in containers of different sizes.

After conducting the experiments, Müller presented his personal arguments regarding similar distortions in the Würzburg school. Scientists from other European psychological schools began to develop and study this concept in the first half of the 20th century. They called illusions the anomalous phenomena that occur in nature - mirages, visual distortions due to the refraction of light. Psychologists from the Gestalt school shared this opinion.

Is reality inside or outside?

From the point of view of the average person, Buddha was a poor hermit, but for millions of his followers he was an enlightened teacher. Everyone evaluates reality with the information that emerges from the psyche at the current stage of development.

Matter is secondary, it is only a conductor of those sensations that live in us. Having bought a desired thing, we experience joy because we project this experience onto an external object. As we develop, we destroy this “dependence” and stop equating our own experiences with external forms. With the understanding that the source of all experiences is within us, duality goes away - both joys and suffering are reduced, but at the same time interest in living reality beyond dreams awakens.

Attachment to suffering and pleasure is our karma. There are no difficulties in the outside world. The mind creates them, and we identify with the thoughts, believing that this is reality. The real challenge is not so much to get rid of difficulties as to understand their nature. Then all internal contradictions are automatically resolved. On progressman.ru, an article on the justice of life is devoted to this topic.

Each phenomenon can be adjusted to the axiom that all emotional and mental reactions come not from the outside, but from the inside.

This is not the sense of self-importance of those people who humiliate us, it is our sense of self-importance that we project onto others, connecting it with external events and people. All personal reactions arise in one's own mind