Mishaps, errors, and cognitive experiences: on the conceptualization of perceptual illusions

Although a visual illusion is often viewed as an amusing trick, for the vision scientist it is a question that demands an answer, which leads to even more questioning. All researchers hold their own chain of questions, the links of which depend on the very theory they adhere to. Perceptual theories...

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Main Authors: Zavagno, Daniele, Daneyko, Olga, Actis-Grosso, Rossana
Format: Online
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2015
Online Access:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4394699/
id pubmed-4394699
recordtype oai_dc
spelling pubmed-43946992015-04-27 Mishaps, errors, and cognitive experiences: on the conceptualization of perceptual illusions Zavagno, Daniele Daneyko, Olga Actis-Grosso, Rossana Neuroscience Although a visual illusion is often viewed as an amusing trick, for the vision scientist it is a question that demands an answer, which leads to even more questioning. All researchers hold their own chain of questions, the links of which depend on the very theory they adhere to. Perceptual theories are devoted to answering questions concerning sensation and perception, but in doing so they shape concepts such as reality and representation, which necessarily affect the concept of illusion. Here we consider the macroscopic aspects of such concepts in vision sciences from three classic viewpoints—Ecological, Cognitive, Gestalt approaches—as we see this a starting point to understand in which terms illusions can become a tool in the hand of the neuroscientist. In fact, illusions can be effective tools in studying the brain in reference to perception and also to cognition in a much broader sense. A theoretical debate is, however, mandatory, in particular with regards to concepts such as veridicality and representation. Whether a perceptual outcome is considered as veridical or illusory (and, consequently, whether a class of phenomena should be classified as perceptual illusions or not) depends on the meaning of such concepts. Frontiers Media S.A. 2015-04-13 /pmc/articles/PMC4394699/ /pubmed/25918504 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2015.00190 Text en Copyright © 2015 Zavagno, Daneyko and Actis-Grosso. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution and reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
repository_type Open Access Journal
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building NCBI PubMed
collection Online Access
language English
format Online
author Zavagno, Daniele
Daneyko, Olga
Actis-Grosso, Rossana
spellingShingle Zavagno, Daniele
Daneyko, Olga
Actis-Grosso, Rossana
Mishaps, errors, and cognitive experiences: on the conceptualization of perceptual illusions
author_facet Zavagno, Daniele
Daneyko, Olga
Actis-Grosso, Rossana
author_sort Zavagno, Daniele
title Mishaps, errors, and cognitive experiences: on the conceptualization of perceptual illusions
title_short Mishaps, errors, and cognitive experiences: on the conceptualization of perceptual illusions
title_full Mishaps, errors, and cognitive experiences: on the conceptualization of perceptual illusions
title_fullStr Mishaps, errors, and cognitive experiences: on the conceptualization of perceptual illusions
title_full_unstemmed Mishaps, errors, and cognitive experiences: on the conceptualization of perceptual illusions
title_sort mishaps, errors, and cognitive experiences: on the conceptualization of perceptual illusions
description Although a visual illusion is often viewed as an amusing trick, for the vision scientist it is a question that demands an answer, which leads to even more questioning. All researchers hold their own chain of questions, the links of which depend on the very theory they adhere to. Perceptual theories are devoted to answering questions concerning sensation and perception, but in doing so they shape concepts such as reality and representation, which necessarily affect the concept of illusion. Here we consider the macroscopic aspects of such concepts in vision sciences from three classic viewpoints—Ecological, Cognitive, Gestalt approaches—as we see this a starting point to understand in which terms illusions can become a tool in the hand of the neuroscientist. In fact, illusions can be effective tools in studying the brain in reference to perception and also to cognition in a much broader sense. A theoretical debate is, however, mandatory, in particular with regards to concepts such as veridicality and representation. Whether a perceptual outcome is considered as veridical or illusory (and, consequently, whether a class of phenomena should be classified as perceptual illusions or not) depends on the meaning of such concepts.
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
publishDate 2015
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4394699/
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