In the Eye of the Beholder

In the eye of the beholder now has scientific backing according to the recent article posted in Science Daily. "Letting your imagination run away with you may actually influence how you see the world. New research from Vanderbilt University has found that mental imagery—what we see with the "mind's eye"—directly impacts our visual perception.

"We found that imagery leads to a short-term memory trace that can bias future perception," says Joel Pearson, research associate in the Vanderbilt Department of Psychology. and lead author of the study. "This is the first research to definitively show that imagining something changes vision both while you are imagining it and later on."

Visual perception, as one should expect, is also influenced by culture as seen by a prescient study done in the mid sixties titled The Influence of Culture on. Visual Perception. Click on the title to see why it's such an awesome read (Note: it's in PDF). Another informative take on this fascinating topic can be done by clicking on the grid.
Of course, to see the artistic side, Escher comes to mind...


as does Huxley.


Enjoy