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Seminars

Perception and superstition


Rita Carter


The way we see the world - even the things we see in it - depends on the effects of both 'bottom-up' and 'top-down' brain processes. The first constructs percepts - like sight - from raw information coming in from the senses; the second imposes a conceptual interpretation on these impressions which converts them into full-blown perceptions. Hence one person may 'see' beauty in a painting, while another may see it as ugly. The interpretations we place on sensory information can also alter what we see by causing us to neglect some aspects of it and amplify others. Two people looking at the same scene may therefore 'see' something quite different, even at a very concrete level. When we are confronted with sensory data that does not fit in with our pre-existing concepts, we may therefore distort it until it does. In this talk, Rita Carter will argue that many superstitions are the result of conceptual misunderstandings of the natural world, and will show how these 'errors' may cause us to see the world as a haunted place.

Rita Carter is a science writer specialising in brain research and the burgeoning field of consciousness studies. She writes for a wide range of newspapers and magazines, including New Scientist, The Independent and Prospect magazine. Her book, Mapping the Mind, about the latest discoveries in neuropsychology, is widely used as a primer in the subject for university students, and has been translated into more than a dozen languages. It was short-listed for the Rhone-Poulenc Science Prize. She is currently working on a book about consciousness.