Do we sense our surroundings first or do we start interpreting and reacting to them right away? Logically we are tempted to assume that we first sense our environment and then interpret it.
For example when you see this symbol - 'µ' - its commonsense to believe that we first perceive its shape, color, etc. and then interpret it to be 'Mu'; but those events may not be happening in that order after all.
We tend to interpret as we sense and vice-versa. The final perception seems to be a mix of both actual and assumed details and our brains must have evolved this mechanism to reduce reaction times.
Nowhere is this phenomenon more evident than in the case of dyslexics and synesthetes. While dyslexics have trouble seeing symbols as depicted, synesthetes perceive symbols in varying colors irrespective of the color they are actually depicted in.
Obviously if we are seeing first and interpreting later, Dyslexia and Synesthesia are logically impossible.
For example when you see this symbol - 'µ' - its commonsense to believe that we first perceive its shape, color, etc. and then interpret it to be 'Mu'; but those events may not be happening in that order after all.
We tend to interpret as we sense and vice-versa. The final perception seems to be a mix of both actual and assumed details and our brains must have evolved this mechanism to reduce reaction times.
Nowhere is this phenomenon more evident than in the case of dyslexics and synesthetes. While dyslexics have trouble seeing symbols as depicted, synesthetes perceive symbols in varying colors irrespective of the color they are actually depicted in.
Obviously if we are seeing first and interpreting later, Dyslexia and Synesthesia are logically impossible.
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Human interpretation of sensory data is so seamless and on the fly, that sensing and analyzing occur simultaneously. The process should definitely start with some form of initial sensory information, but the processing of later information is very much dependent on the initial info.
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Read the following sentence - "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." You would have no problem despite the obvious jumbling of letters. Humans interpret words just by reading the first and last letters.
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Exactly, that's what my post is all about. We don't seem to completely rely on sensory inputs for perception. Our brain may be processing only those stimuli that are required for it to make an informed decision about what is out there. For instance, when synesthetes perceive the shape of a symbol, their brain may be automatically associating a color to it with out relying on actual sensory information.
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There was an experiment discussed in the late Dr. Carl Sagan's book Dragons of Eden where a Dr stimulated nerves in a patient's brain to stimulate the patient's pinkie finger and then stimulated the actual finger and found that contrary to what one would think, stimulating the finger caused the signal to travel to the brain faster than stimulating the brain first, in fact the stimulus was never applied to the finger and the brain still reacted.
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@Nicholas - Can you please provide some more details about the experiment by Dr. Sagan... a link to an article or a video should help us understand the experiment better.
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http://www.oocities.org/athens/acropolis/1628/A41brain.htm The book Dragons of Eden is an incredibly eye opening novel and the best book i have ever read. I'm trying to spread awareness about it and discuss it with people.
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