What You See is What You’ve Learned

1. What You See is What You’ve Learned Talya Brooks and Rada Lowery

2. Background Continued… • Perceptual Constancies: characteristics of objects stay the same even though sensations may change • Ex: Shape Constancy • Size-Constancy: perceive a familiar object as being the same size, regardless of distance • Questions leading to study: • Is size-constancy learned or born? • What experiences allow us to have these abilities?

3. Background • Sensation: Refers to the information you are constantly receiving from your environment through your senses. • Ex: Slamming a door or a car going by. • Perception: Refers to how we take a large amount of sensations and create meaning to them. • Ex: Figure-ground, used to divide sensations into figure and ground relationships.

4. Explanation of Study • In 1962, Anthropologist Colin Turnbull studied the life and culture of the BaMbuti Pygmies. • Primary method of research was naturalistic observation. • Kenge and Turnbull found Ishango National Park and they saw buffalo in the distance which looked very small like insects. • Turnbull brought Kenge closer to the buffalo and Kenge believed it was magic that made them bigger when getting closer to them. • Perceptual constancies and size-constancy was needed to understand that the buffalo was the same size as it had been farther away.

5. Findings and Conclusions • Certain skills we have are necessary for our survival, but everyone’s development is not in the same situations • They are learned by experience—influenced by our culture and environment • Some of the perceptual abilities we have may be present at birth they are given by nature without having to learn anything • Turnbull’s study has concluded that size-constancy is learned rather than being born with it.

6. Historical Significance • The study addressed the question of the influence of biology vs. environment on our behavior • It influenced the field of anthropology

7. Blakemore & Cooper Study • They raised kittens in the dark; the only difference was the exposure to either vertical or horizontal stripes • When they were taken out of the dark, the ones who had been exposed to certain lines responded to those lines • Cat’s ability to see wasn’t hurt but some of the perceptual abilities were affected