Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture. Focus on the cube

Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture what is odd about this?

Old woman or young woman?

Look at this picture for 3 seconds then draw it from memory

A vase or two faces?

Visual Perception The question Is the world OUT THERE to be seen? Bottom Up perception (Gibson) If perception is innate Then we draw the world as it is

Visual Perception Do we construct the world that we see? Top Down perception (Gregory) If perception is learned Then we draw what we THINK we see and what we think we see has been learned

Top Down visual perception? The ‘switch’ you see is evidence for GREGORY

IS the left vertical really shorter? more evidence for Top Down?

And what on earth is this? more evidence for Top Down?

And think about this……. The red squares ARE the same colour and size So why do they look different?

Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture The question Does culture affect the way we SEE pictures (nurture) Cross cultural studies can help to answer this question

Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture The method DEREGOWSKI performed a review of a series of CROSS CULTURAL STUDIES

Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture Study (1) late 19th century Robert Laws & Mrs Donald Frazer they were missionaries showed Africans ‘European style’ Pictures (e.g. of elephants)

Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture The Africans were afraid of them….. they thought they were real elephants

Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture Study (2) William Hudson “the key to understanding pictures lies in depth cues” WE LEARN three rules

Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture DEPTH CUES - Rule ONE larger objects are perceived as nearer

Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture DEPTH CUES - Rule TWO overlap - obscured objects seen as further away

Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture DEPTH CUES - Rule THREE perspective - lines converge as they get further away (railway lines)

William Hudson’s famous picture Spearing the antelope or the elephant?

Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture Showed this picture to Africans when asked “what is the man doing” participants could not say which animal was ‘being speared’ (did not seem to use depth cues) classed as two dimensional viewers

Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture Study (3) William Hudson Zambian children - shown picture of two squares connected by a ‘rod’

Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture Study (3) William Hudson Given sticks and modelling clay to ‘build a model’ of what they saw

Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture Study (3) William Hudson 2-D viewers built two dimensional models British primary school children usually try to build 3 dimensional models (boxes)

Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture Study (4) The impossible trident Zambian primary school children asked to draw this figure 2-D viewers found it easiest!

Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture Study (4) The impossible trident 3-D viewers found it harder - they spent longer looking at it (Why?) Are you a 2-D or a 3-D viewer

Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture Study (5) Richard GREGORY asked unskilled African viewers to adjust a spot of light so that it lay at the same depth as an object in the ‘spearing the antelope picture’

Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture Study (5) example - try this out Where will the pointer be if it is on the nearest object? 2-D viewers cannot do this

Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture Study (6) split style drawing African children prefer the split style

Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture The cross cultural studies What can we conclude? If different cultures use different rules to construct their pictures it follows that one culture may not be able to interpret the drawings of another culture

Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture Do YOU understand these symbols? 8 9 b v & * ( N what do they mean? Would they be universally understood? (by all cultures)

Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture What do you see? Duck or rabbit? Evidence for Gregory or Gibson?

Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture Remember the question !! Is the world OUT THERE to be seen? Bottom Up perception (Gibson=nature) Do we construct the world that we see? Top Down perception (Gregory=nurture)

Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture As you view this is your brain testing a hypothesis?

Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture The end