Just this passed semester, your blog team had conducted a research based on a question posed Banerjee, Chatterjee, and Sinha (2012) regarding the association of brightness and darkness to moral judgment.
Given that light and dark appear to be linked to moral behavior, can ambient light affect the perception and evaluation of morally ambiguous behaviors?
Their original study showed that when participants were asked to recall a good deed they have done in the past, they judged the room they were in to be brighter while participants who were asked to recall a morally wrong behavior in the past, judged the room to be darker (Banerjee, et. al., 2012).
Our research aimed to find out whether the brightness of the room affected the participants' judgments of a morally ambiguous behavior, and guess what? It did, and what more, participants who were in the bright condition gave softer, kinder forms of punishment and were more inclined to give a reward to the doer of the morally ambiguous behavior while participants in the dark condition gave harsher, stricter punishments and none were inclined to give any form of reward to the doer of the ambiguous behavior.
Light and dark have always been connected with good and evil. In media, villains, demons and evil are always depicted in dark colors while protagonists, angels and goodness are depicted in a brighter more vibrant manner.
Can you tell which ones are the angels of Paradiso and which ones are the infernal demons of Inferno from the pictures on the left? The pictures come from a game called Bayonetta and in this game, Paradise and angels are depicted in bright hues of white and gold while demons and infernal representations are depicted in hues of black, purple and red. In the Holy Bible, Jesus is known as the "Light of the world" while Lucifer is known as the "Prince of darkness" who disguises himself as an "Angel of light" to trick the people of the world. When I tell you to imagine heaven, do you imagine a dark and dim place or a bright, well-lit place?
Yin (black) and Yang (white): Respectively, negative and positive energies
If you don’t, then perhaps I’m really getting old. It’s
actually a children’s show I really liked to watch way way way back to the good
old days when I had so much free time and all I was worrying about was what show
to watch. Unlike now that I can barely watch TV because of all the things I
need to do (e.g. write a blog), but I still don’t feel pretty bad especially
when one of my friends doesn’t even know who Kuya Kim is (ehem, Micah :)).
Anyway, Batibot is
like Sesame Street which uses mascots and puppets as characters to create
stories for children. I can still remember how fascinated and curious I was on
how these characters could speak like humans. It was only when I was a
little older when I realized that they were not really speaking on their own,
but they were actually being dubbed and/or manipulated and I just tend to
perceive them as the one directly speaking.
Anyway, here's a Jessica Soho's (2007) feature of Batibot: (sorry, I can't find a better resolution)
Apparently, this is what we call a visual capture or
ventriloquism effect wherein we perceive sounds to be coming from the apparent
visual source, even if it actually originates from another location (Goldstein,
2010). This is what commonly occurs on acts of stagecraft, in which a person
changes his/her voice to make a puppet seem alive.
I actually found a very interesting study by Baldwin (2012),
on how ventriloquist dolls are being used nowadays to interact with people with
dementia. In his experiment, he exposed the patients into three treatments:
interacting with staff members (control group), listening to music, and
engaging with the doll. They scored the patients with their level
of interaction and interest on the three conditions by putting observers on
each conducted session.
The experiment showed a 28 percent increase in the level of
engagement when the doll was used compared to the other types of interaction. This
shows how the ventriloquist doll helped residents, especially those withdrawn
or depressed, open up their feelings. They also observed how those who
rarely communicated with their family or care staff, suddenly preferred
engaging with the doll than with people.
Ventriloquist doll used for dementia therapy
This led them to conclude on how patients considered the
doll as a surrogate, non-threatening, and light-hearted entity that made
communication with it easier and freer. Another reason is how engaging with the
ventriloquist doll also possessed what Cooren (2012) calls as “one of the key
elements of communication, that is, our capacity to make other beings say or do
things while we speak, write, or, more generally, conduct ourselves”.
The use of dolls in treating patients with dementia has
actually been started by Mackenzie et al (2006). In their experiment, dolls
were put on visible areas (e.g. tables) where patients can easily locate and
engage with them. They observed a largely positive effect on the patients, and
they saw how the residents became “less agitated, more engaged and more likely
to communicate with staff”.
This is really interesting for me, since the ventriloquist
dolls and puppets that I thought as just part of my childhood, are now actually
being used as a therapy for dementia. Also, this again highlights how our
senses do not work in isolation, but how different modalities work together, like
our audio-visual-tactile senses as in the case of doll ventriloquism. It is
amazing how memory can falter, like in the case of patients with dementia, but our ability to
sense and perceive stimulus simultaneously is still automatic, and how it can still affect one’s level of interaction and disclosure.
Though there are criticisms that these ventriloquist dolls
face infantilisation or the danger of treating old age as that of a
second childhood (Mackenzie et al., 2012), I just think that recognizing it as
a potential form of therapy still has large implications and pioneering
approaches on dealing with people with neurodegenerative disease.
There are still more researches to be done on this field but
as for me, I guess I need to buy a Pong
Pagong stuff toy and practice ventriloquism in the near future.
Well, if you really don’t know who Pong Pagong is, then here is just a video of one of my most
favorite ventriloquists, Paul Zerdin:
Goldstein, E. (2010). Sensation and Perception 8th ed.
Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning.
Mackenzie, L., James, I., Morse, R., Mukaetova-Ladinska, E.,
Reichelt, K. (2006). A pilot study on the use of dolls for people with
dementia. Age and Ageing, 35(4)
441-44.
Kia: [Real-life Thumbelina?] Chos lang XD Bakit ang laki ng picture ko ang daya!!! Hahaha
Is there really such a thing as a real-life Thumbelina? Or a minimized person that can fit into one's palm? Sorry to pop your bubble but they don't really exist. Reality isn't as magical as fairytales but thankfully, we can somehow escape from this objectivity through visual illusions.
Visual illusions or more commonly known as optical illusions are a phenomena by which our visual system fabricates a three-dimensional interpretation of the world (Eagleman, 2001) based from the two-dimensional representation in our retina. Basically, it just means that our perception of the world does not tally with the actual size or depth or distance of these actual objects due to these illusions . We are also often fascinated by them since through visual illusions, we are effortlessly and easily challenged whether what we see is real (Bach & Poloschek, 2006).
Like in the picture above, we didn't actually find a pixie in school or invent a shrinking device, or even use CGI to create this effect (we can barely even use Photoshop). That's actually Sarj, one of the bloggers who went a couple of strides behind Kia and strategically posed to create this special effect.
See? You can even see her shadow on the floor.
The perceived change in size of Sarj is due to her more distant position. Since she is farther from the observer's eye, she subtends a smaller visual angle than Kia, thus making her appear smaller. Well, visual angle is just the angle of an object relative to the observer's eye (Goldstein, 2010) or how the angle of the object of interest subtends at the eye.
Moreover, visual angle is influenced by the size of the stimulus and the distance of the object from the observer. The farther the object from the observer, the larger the visual angle it subtends, whereas when it is nearer, the visual angle is small.
Thumbelina: take 2
vs.
Thumbelina: take 3
Actually this trick has also been used by filmmakers such as Peter Jackson in the Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring to accomplish interactions between normal sized humans and in the case of the LOTR, hobbits without the use of CGI. You can see how this was done (and other interesting non-CGI effects) in this article in Cracked.
It basically uses the concept of forced perspective, wherein optical illusions are used to make an object appear different in distance and/or size than the actual reality (Bell, 2011).
Frodo and Gandalf are perceived to be sitting side-by-side
Frodo is actually sitting several feet away from Gandalf to make Frodo look smaller
Try it at home!
Close one eye and form the forefinger and thumb of the hand opposite the closed eye into a letter C (or a backward letter C). Try fitting a distant object between that space and then when you're sure, approach the object without moving your fingers and see which is bigger!
Who is taller?
Who do you think is taller of the two ladies standing there? The one on the left or the one on the right (imagine they're wearing the same shoes)?
Actually, they are both the same height! You've been deceived by what we call the Müller-Lyer Illusion. This happens when our visual system judges fins or angles that are "protruding out" to be longer, but those that are "protruding in" to be shorter (Goldstein, 2010).
Muller-Lyer Illusion: Can you tell at first glance which one of the vertical lines is longer?
It is also interesting to note that perception of Muller-Lyer illusion is influenced by culture (Masuda, 2009). Westerners or individuals who grew up in a "carpented" world, perceive lines with protruding fins as longer, since they have been regularly exposed to corners of rectilinear objects. One the other hand, some cultures (e.g. hunters-gatherers) are said to be immune to the Muller-Lyer illusion, suggesting that perception is influenced by environment and previous knowledge.
Real-life application!
Are you the shortest among your friends? Fret not! The next time you take a group picture, put your hands up into a Y. You'll look like you're having the time of your life and you'll probably gain a few centimeters in height*. To make it even more effective, ask your friends to help you out by keeping their arms in an invered V position.
*Results are not guaranteed!
A thumb for a head
Is her head really smaller than a thumb? Or about as big as a thumbnail? I think you already know the answer to this. [Hint: Thumbelina] But, you might be wondering, why?
Let us take into account again the concept of visual angles. The hand is nearer to the observer, thus having a greater visual angle. It then makes it look bigger than the face.
Hand x 4
Which one of these hands is first in line to have a meaningful conversation with you?
We assume you could probably guess it's the one on the left most part. How did you know that though? What if those hands were actually connected to one another and were actually only just one big hand?
The thing is, our brains are capable of perceiving depth and distance according to a number of factors.
What you've done in this case is actually judge a distance according to shadows, relative size and deletion. Your brain probably registered the shadows which were cast along the hands and judged that those were cast by the hands which are in front of them.
Parting words and a disclaimer in between
Being able to perceive visual illusion is a gift.. You might have taken it for granted before, but people with autism are not really susceptible to these illusions (Mitchell & Ropar, 2005). I guess you can be thankful to your properly processing visual system, but visual illusion perception does not come from this alone. Your previous experiences, environment, and knowledge play a role in enabling you to perceive these. Visual illusions actually look convincing only if you want them to (Ganel, Tanzer, & Goodale, 2008). So really, you can believe there exists a Thumbelina in this world. :)
A crash course on Photoshop, this was not.
What do you do when you're asked to take pictures demonstrating depth and size?
Whip out your cellphones and take pictures, silly!
Ganel, T., Tanzer, M., & Goodale, M. (2008) A Double Dissociation Between Action and Perception in the Context of Visual Illusions: Opposite Effects of Real and Illusory Size.Psychological Science, 19(3) , 221–225. Retrieved from Ebsco database.
Goldstein, E. (2010). Sensation and Perception 8th ed. Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning.
Titbits of one-sided cell-phone conversations are
ubiquitous in our everyday lives. Whether we like it or not, we overhear these talks
while riding public vehicles, walking around the campus, or randomly eating on
restaurants and malls. I, personally, frequently overhear my parents’ cell-phone
conversations even if I’m in my room, and it just leaves me quite frustrated
since I can’t study well and/or concentrate on facebook-ing.
Thankfully, I discovered I’m not alone since a study
by Emberson et al. (2010) shows that it’s normal for people to get irritated
and out of focus when they hear nearby cell-phone conversations. In their
experiment, they had recorded “halfalogue” – one-sided dialogue which is the
same as overhearing half of the cell-phone conversations – in female college
women.
They gathered participants and let them hear these
recordings while instructing them to do tasks that require attention such as
tracking a moving dot using a computer mouse. Another treatment was formed,
wherein participants did the same concentration task, but they were exposed on hearing
both sides of the cell-phone conversations.
True enough, the researchers found that the
participants performed worse on their task when they were overhearing the
halfalogues. However, it is interesting how there is no decreased performance
when they were overhearing both sides of the cell-phone conversations.
This led the researchers to conclude that the brain
ignores predictable things while paying more attention to things that are
unpredictable. In this case, our brain finds it predictable when both sides of
the conversation are audible, which leads to non-disruption of attention in
doing tasks. On the other hand, hearing the unpredictable halfalogues always
put us on our toes since we always try to guess what they are talking about or what
will be the next thing they will say.
This is in rapport with the findings of Sutter (2011) where he exposed the public to staged conversations while they were
waiting on a bus station or travelling on a train. In one treatment, only one
end of the cell-phone conversations is heard (halfalogue), while the other
treatment enables people to overhear face-to-face conversations. Indeed, mobile
phone conversations are found to be more noticeable, intrusive, and annoying than
face-to-face conversations.
Moreover, it should be noted that these halfalogue
not only affect our attention when doing certain tasks, but also our focus in
doing mundane activities. Older adults are actually found to have difficulty
crossing the road and are less likely to complete their crossing when exposed
to overhearing cell-phone conversations compared when they are listening to
music or undistracted (Neider et al., 2011). Even analyzing traffic patterns
and making decisions when to cross are affected.
These studies really have astounding implications on
me, because ever since I’ve encountered this, I try to be more sensitive when I’m
talking at my cell-phone in a public area. I try to modulate the volume of my
voice since people really hear, not because they eavesdrop or pay attention,
but because it is an unconscious cognitive mechanism for us to be forced to
listen.
Emberson, L., Lupyan, G., Goldstein, M., &
Spivery, M. (2010). Overheard cell-phone conversations when less speech is more
distracting. Psychological Science,
21(10), 1383-1388. doi:10.1177/0956797610382126
Neider, N., Gaspar, J.,
McCarley, J., Crowell, J., Karczmarski, H., & Kramer, A. (2011). Walking and talking: Dual-task effects on street crossing
behavior in older adults. Psychology
and Aging, 26(2), 260-268. Retrieved August 25, 2012, from Ebsco database.
Have you ever wondered why the last piece of cake,
the last slice of pizza, or the last bite in a hamburger tastes especially
delicious? Nope, there’s no magic involved since no ingredient is secretly
added. Just the fact that it is the last
makes it really special.
In a taste perception experiment by O’Brien and
Ellsworth (2012) published in the Psychological Science, they recruited 52 students
from University of Michigan to evaluate new flavors of Hershey’s Kisses. Each
participant was randomly given five chocolates with different flavors: milk,
dark, creme, caramel, and almond.
The participants were randomly assigned into two
conditions. One treatment is where an experimenter would tell them “Here is
your next chocolate” after every turn
up to the last chocolate. On the other condition, the experimenter still said
the same thing after every turn, but before giving the fifth chocolate, he
would say “Here is your last
chocolate”.
As they had predicted, it was found that the
participants rated the 5th chocolate (irrespective of flavor) more delicious
when they have been told that it was the last, as compared to when it’s just
another chocolate they would taste. They have also found that the overall
eating experience was more enjoyable when the last chocolate was made salient.
What makes it more intriguing is that it is just a
mock “ending” since the participants could still eat chocolates even after the
experiment. Just the fact that they were made aware that they would be eating
the last chocolate in the series makes the 5th chocolate extra-special, showing
our biases in end experiences.
Ersner-Hershfield et al. (2008) even show how senior
students always have mixed emotions whenever they are reminded of graduation
day as compared to those who are not expecting to graduate. Also, they found
that people perceive a meaningful location to be more beautiful when they were
told that they would see it for the final time. Indeed, temporal knowledge not only affects
taste perception, but also poignancy felt by people while perceiving situations
or places.
This is really interesting because the current
research suggests, aside from adding up to a plethora of evidence that
highlight how we give value to the “lasts”, that not only do we give importance
on the significant experiences that end, but on mundane things (i.e. eating
chocolates) as well.
This struck me as having a lot of astounding
implications. Our unconscious bias to endings may give a favorable but
undeserved treatment to the last student who presented a report, the last
performer we watched, or the last applicant for a job. Being able to anticipate
the last should also come hand-in-hand with the awareness that there is such a
thing as a positivity bias for these endings.
So the next time you open a pack of chocolates,
study for an exam, or just have lunch with a friend, why don’t you savor it by
thinking every day as if it is your last?
