Visual IntelligenceVisual IntelligenceHow We Create What We SeeHow We Create What We See

Donald D. Hoffman

Chapter 1

A Creative Genius for Vision

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We do not realize how We do not realize how we interpret the worldwe interpret the world

Creative genius

Visual virtuoso

Without exception, Without exception, everything you see you everything you see you construct:construct:Color, shading, texture, motion, shape, visual objects, and entire visual scenes.For example...

Magic Eye Books & StereovisionMagic Eye Books & Stereovision Normal ViewingNormal Viewing Focus on the thing you

want to see Vision comes to a

focused point at the object or image

Parallel-ViewingParallel-Viewing 3D illusions such as the

Magic Eye Looking through or past

the object (a window) Vision does not focus

directly at image

Hint: ElephantHint: Elephant

The RippleThe Ripple

2D surface Impossible to view as

flat Visual system not only

fabricates the ripple, it endows it with pats

Illusion works right side up or upside down

The Magic SquareThe Magic Square

The Impossible TriangleThe Impossible Triangle

Wavy LinesWavy Lines

Difficult to focus?Difficult to focus?

Hexagon or a Cube?Hexagon or a Cube?

The Cube of Death

Phenomenal vs. RelationalPhenomenal vs. Relational

Phenomenal SensePhenomenal Sense

The way things look to you.

Hallucinations of pink elephants

Relational SenseRelational Sense What you interact with

when you look A thing must exist to be

seen in the relational sense.

Questions:Questions:Fight Club –Is Brad Pitt Relational or Phenomenal

Is it necessary to classify our vision into Relational and Phenomenal?

Is there truly a difference in what we think we see and what we interact with?

The User-Friendly The User-Friendly Icon InterfaceIcon Interface

Our vision and the “icon metaphor”

The Icon MetaphorThe Icon Metaphor

On the computer screen there are many icons representing many different things “in” the computer. These icons allow us to interact with the information.

Similarly, our visual experiences serve as our user-friendly icon interface with those things we relationally see.

Is the Icon Metaphor True?Is the Icon Metaphor True? Is this disk in my hand really the disk I am interacting with?

OR is it merely an icon representation of something else that I am really interacting with?

Is this something that I am interacting with, even really in this place?

OR is this just an icon representation I am using to access something in a different location of space?

Just as the icon on this computer screen allows me to interact the information of a given file.

Icon Metaphor Continuation:Icon Metaphor Continuation:

Is the disk really a disk when you are not perceiving it?

Is the disk that I perceive, numerically identical to the one you perceive?

Semivision Semivision The vision of AnimalsThe vision of Animals Adrian Horridge

Gold fish have four color receptors

Honeybees see ultraviolet light

Flies use visual motion Day old chicks can

discriminate shapes Animals’ vision serve many

different purposes

Of all the species on earth and throughout time, how can we be sure our vision is the correct one?

To To constructconstruct is the is the essence of visionessence of vision..

-Don Hoffman

The fundamental The fundamental problem of vision:problem of vision:

The image at the eye has countless possible interpretations…

How do all children learn to How do all children learn to see in the same way?see in the same way?

The Rules of Universal Vision and Visual Processing

The Rule of Universal VisionThe Rule of Universal Vision Innate rules which grant visual mastery and lead to

consensus in the visual constructions despite ambiguity

Everyone constructs the same vision (with or without the same interpretation)

Part of the child’s biology, and allows the child to acquire, through visual experiences that might vary from one culture to another, the rules of visual processing

Similar to Noam Chomsky’s innate language principles

The Rule of Visual ProcessingThe Rule of Visual Processing

Allows interpretation of what is constructed, based on prior experience

Allow the visually competent child or adult to construct specific visual scenes by looking

Similar to Noam Chomsky’s rules of universal grammar

The rules are the key…The rules are the key…