2001 Seminar

SEEING HOW TO SEE
A close look at perception
17th - 18th February, 2001
The Royal Society of Medicine

We all trust our senses and rely on the perceptions we use to steer us through everyday life. But how reliable are the means by which we assess the world? How real is what we perceive? What factors influence our instruments of perception and distort our view? Can we alter the way we perceive and the things we pay attention to? This seminar will look at the things we take for granted. Leading experts from a variety of fields will suggest that we do not view things objectively at all; instead we filter out a mass of information, then make assumptions about the rest. Evolving this technique has enabled us to cope with many evolutionary challenges, and to deal with situations that would otherwise be impossible. However, these patterns of thought have limitations and can give rise to absurd behaviour. Thus the universal search for patterns can - as one speaker points out - end up convincing devotees of Mother Theresa that they see her face in a cinnamon bun. Our faith in the objectivity of numbers could lead us to accept statistics which our common-sense tells us are ridiculous: for example, it can be statistically proved that storks deliver babies. And our reliance on subjective impressions makes us easy to deceive by anyone prepared to reinforce those same assumptions. So, are we in fact capable of more choice in how, and what, we perceive? Perhaps, by understanding the invisible mechanisms of our own perceptions, we can understand more about ourselves, our future possibilities, and the reality beyond our own subjectivity.

PROGRAMME
Saturday, February 17th
Chairman: David Wade (with Henri Bortoft and Dr. Kevin Byron)
Note: Each session allows for some twenty minutes of question and discussion at the end. If you want to write your question down, please do so and it will be collected.

9.45-10.00 am Chairman's introduction

10.00-11.00 am Visual illusions
Professor Richard Gregory, CBE, FRS

11.00-11.30 am Coffee/tea

11.30-12.30 pm Perception and superstition
Rita Carter

12.30-2.00 pm Lunch

2.00-3.00 pm Conjuring, deception and self-deception
Dr. Richard Wiseman

3.00-3.30 pm Tea/coffee

3.30-4.30 pm Proustian Memory: how unconscious triggers can drive our lives
Dr. Helen Cassaday

4.30-5.15 pm Panel questions and discussion, followed by wind-up and dispersal.

Sunday, February 18th

9.45-10.45 am Science and human perception
Professor Harry Collins

10.45-11.15 am Coffee/tea