shapes that made up what they were seeing than their internal construct of a person. In other
words, sometimes looking at the same information in a different context can help to bypass the altering of reality in your brain that you normally get."
"In our previous artistic examples we used photos with an ordinary subject matter. If we sometimes have difficulty observing and communicating
uncomplicated items with precision, try to imagine how much harder it is to observe and communicate complex items or concepts accurately."
"It is easy just to say "be on the lookout for incorrect thinking." It is not always that simple, however. You do not yet understand how insidious and
nearly invisible the process of making wrong assumptions and classifications can be."
"What we have just been looking at is a simplified description of what is actually an unimaginably complex process that nobody fully understands. New bits
and pieces in the process are discovered all the time. What is discovered is often much different than we would have predicted. I mentioned a few times the
idea of "to notice" as in, noticing discrepancies or irregularities. What is involved in "noticing" at the brain level? It is actually far more complicated
than you probably realize. I'll give you some examples that show a glimpse of the process."
"Often in conducting research for neuroscience, the people examined have experienced some sort of trauma, accident or stroke, which has caused a change to
brain function. One reason for this is that some things are easier to see by their absence than by looking at the whole process."
"The first example is a case of a man who experienced a stroke. It was observed after the stroke that the man no longer "noticed" things on his right side.
There was no failure in vision; he just did not notice them. If they were pointed out to him, he would, then notice them, but not on his own."
"In an experiment, he was asked to recreate a relatively simple drawing of a house. He drew a fairly good representation of the house in the drawing but
only the portion of it that was on his left side. He totally ignored the right side of the drawing and did not include it in his copy. He did not even
notice that his drawing was incomplete. When the right side of the sample drawing was pointed out to him and brought to his attention by the researcher, he
saw it and was amazed that he had missed it, but he was unable to notice it on his own."
"While this is an example of abnormal brain function due to damage by a stroke, it raises the question of what is actually happening in the brain to make
the person notice or not notice something. And note that the discrepancy required an outside observer to make the man even aware of the flaw. What might
normal, undamaged brains be missing and not "noticing?"
"In the next example, the test subject had experienced brain trauma due to a boating accident. It was observed after the accident that the test subject was
totally blind on the left side of the visual field of both eyes. This meant she could not see items that were to her left, unless she moved her head or
eyes to put an object in the right side of her visual field. Do you follow me on this so far?" There were a number of nods so Dr. Pearson continued.
"An interesting thing occurred during one particular test. In the test, there was a spot on a piece of paper, and she was told to focus on the spot. The
researcher then moved a circle on a stick in front of the test subject's left visual field that she could not see. This blindness was tested and was
ascertained to be real. As mentioned, she could not see things there. She could, however, tell the researcher with ninety percent accuracy in which
direction the circle on a stick that she could not see, was moved. She could tell with a high level of accuracy, whether it moved left, right, up, or down,
but not see it."
"In our third and final example, the test subjects were random people
words, sometimes looking at the same information in a different context can help to bypass the altering of reality in your brain that you normally get."
"In our previous artistic examples we used photos with an ordinary subject matter. If we sometimes have difficulty observing and communicating
uncomplicated items with precision, try to imagine how much harder it is to observe and communicate complex items or concepts accurately."
"It is easy just to say "be on the lookout for incorrect thinking." It is not always that simple, however. You do not yet understand how insidious and
nearly invisible the process of making wrong assumptions and classifications can be."
"What we have just been looking at is a simplified description of what is actually an unimaginably complex process that nobody fully understands. New bits
and pieces in the process are discovered all the time. What is discovered is often much different than we would have predicted. I mentioned a few times the
idea of "to notice" as in, noticing discrepancies or irregularities. What is involved in "noticing" at the brain level? It is actually far more complicated
than you probably realize. I'll give you some examples that show a glimpse of the process."
"Often in conducting research for neuroscience, the people examined have experienced some sort of trauma, accident or stroke, which has caused a change to
brain function. One reason for this is that some things are easier to see by their absence than by looking at the whole process."
"The first example is a case of a man who experienced a stroke. It was observed after the stroke that the man no longer "noticed" things on his right side.
There was no failure in vision; he just did not notice them. If they were pointed out to him, he would, then notice them, but not on his own."
"In an experiment, he was asked to recreate a relatively simple drawing of a house. He drew a fairly good representation of the house in the drawing but
only the portion of it that was on his left side. He totally ignored the right side of the drawing and did not include it in his copy. He did not even
notice that his drawing was incomplete. When the right side of the sample drawing was pointed out to him and brought to his attention by the researcher, he
saw it and was amazed that he had missed it, but he was unable to notice it on his own."
"While this is an example of abnormal brain function due to damage by a stroke, it raises the question of what is actually happening in the brain to make
the person notice or not notice something. And note that the discrepancy required an outside observer to make the man even aware of the flaw. What might
normal, undamaged brains be missing and not "noticing?"
"In the next example, the test subject had experienced brain trauma due to a boating accident. It was observed after the accident that the test subject was
totally blind on the left side of the visual field of both eyes. This meant she could not see items that were to her left, unless she moved her head or
eyes to put an object in the right side of her visual field. Do you follow me on this so far?" There were a number of nods so Dr. Pearson continued.
"An interesting thing occurred during one particular test. In the test, there was a spot on a piece of paper, and she was told to focus on the spot. The
researcher then moved a circle on a stick in front of the test subject's left visual field that she could not see. This blindness was tested and was
ascertained to be real. As mentioned, she could not see things there. She could, however, tell the researcher with ninety percent accuracy in which
direction the circle on a stick that she could not see, was moved. She could tell with a high level of accuracy, whether it moved left, right, up, or down,
but not see it."
"In our third and final example, the test subjects were random people
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