News for Nerds

[jackofallgeeks]

And on the heels of a long silence and a big 'hello,' I bring you more geek
news. Apparently there's a new paper out that, according to this
article, says that what we expect influences what we see. Now,
if the paper actually claimed that I'd find it really interesting, but it
doesn't seem like that's the case. First, it's not really talking about a
change in perception so much as what you notice. Two people
percieving differently based on expectations is a lot more
interesting than just noticing different things. And from the
article it seems that "expectations" isn't even really a good word to use,
because the subjects were apparently not actually aware of the
expectations that the researchers grant them. Essentially, it sounds like
someone just took the commonly known fact that we filter out most of the
visual stimuli our eyes pick up, and added on that the 'filter' that the
brain uses is not random, but based on a value system built by experience.
Fascinating. Really.