Theory of Knowledge challenges the way we know, and I wanted to show how we see what we expect to see. Of course, these are old, old ideas, but they were fun anyway!
I showed my class this picture:
“What does it say?” I asked.
“Paris in the spring!”
“Are you sure?”
I asked several students. In a class of over twenty, only one – and eventually one more – disagreed.
Then, I asked a student to identify the picture:
“Six of hearts!” came a reply.
It took just a few seconds for another student to object, but my point of seeing what you expect to see was established!
thoda lost … explain na pls
😀
The message in the triangle seems as if it is ‘Paris in the spring’ because that is what we want to read. As a matter of fact, it says ‘Paris in the the spring’ – ‘the’ occurs twice! We don’t notice it because of what we expect.
In the second case, we see 6 of hearts because it’s nice and familiar. In reality, though, it’s a red six of spades – a card that does not exist. Interestingly, there are people who see it as 6 of spades and don’t notice that it is red! I find that fascinating!
The purpose of the class was to show how sense perception is flawed because we see what we expect to see.
damn yeah … im not so fond of this word ‘fail’ that goes around so much, but well, fits very well here 🙂
I understand! It’s quite frustrating, isn’t it? I feel like saying, “Give me another chance! I’m sure I’ll be more careful! I’ll read both the ‘the’s well!”