deregowski (1972) pictorial perception and culture

Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture.

Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture.

Deregowski (1972) Pictorial perception and culture


Old woman or young woman?Old woman or young woman?

Look at this picture for 3 secondsthen draw it from memory

Look at this picture for 3 secondsthen draw it from memory

A vase or two faces?A vase or two faces?

Visual PerceptionVisual Perception

• The question

• Is the world OUT THERE to be seen? Bottom Up perception (Gibson)

• If perception is innate Then we draw the world as it is

Visual PerceptionVisual Perception

• Do we construct the world that we see?

• Top Down perception (Gregory)

• If perception is learned Then we draw what we THINK we see and what we think we see has been learned

Top Down visual perception?Top Down visual perception?

• The ‘switch’ you see is evidence for GREGORY

IS the left vertical really shorter? IS the left vertical really shorter?

And what on earth is this? And what on earth is this?

And think about this…….And think about this…….

The red squares ARE the same colour and size

So why do they look different?



• The question

• Does culture affect the way we SEE pictures (nurture)

• Cross cultural studies can help to answer this question



• The method

• DEREGOWSKI performed a review of a series of

CROSS CULTURAL STUDIES



• Study (1) late 19th century

• Robert Laws & Mrs Donald Frazer– they were missionaries

• showed Africans ‘European style’ Pictures (e.g. of elephants)



The Africans were afraid of them….. they thought they were real elephants



• Study (2) William Hudson

• “the key to understanding pictures lies in depth cues”

• WE LEARN three rules



• DEPTH CUES - Rule ONE• larger objects are perceived as nearer



• DEPTH CUES - Rule TWO• overlap - obscured objects seen as

further away



• DEPTH CUES - Rule THREE• perspective - lines converge as they

get further away (railway lines)

William Hudson’s famous pictureSpearing the antelope or the elephant?



• Showed this picture to Africans • when asked “what is the man doing”

participants could not say which animal was ‘being speared’

• (did not seem to use depth cues)

• classed as two dimensional viewers




• Zambian children - shown picture of two squares connected by a ‘rod’




• Given sticks and modelling clay to ‘build a model’ of what they saw




• 2-D viewers built two dimensional models

British primary British primary school children school children usually try to build usually try to build 3 dimensional 3 dimensional models (boxes)models (boxes)



• Study (4) The impossible trident

• Zambian primary school children asked to draw this figure

• 2-D viewers found it easiest!



• Study (4) The impossible trident

• 3-D viewers found it harder - they spent longer looking at it (Why?)

Are you a 2-D or a 3-D viewer Are you a 2-D or a 3-D viewer



• Study (5) Richard GREGORY

• asked unskilled African viewers to

adjust a spot of light so that it lay at the same depth as an object in the

• ‘spearing the antelope picture’



• Study (5) example - try this out

Where will the Where will the pointer be if it pointer be if it is on the is on the nearest object?nearest object?

2-D viewers 2-D viewers cannot do thiscannot do this



• Study (6) split style drawing

African children African children prefer the split style prefer the split style



• The cross cultural studies

• What can we conclude?• If different cultures use different rules to

construct their pictures it follows that one culture may not be able to interpret the drawings of another culture



• Do YOU understand these symbols?

what do they mean?Would they be universally understood?

(by all cultures)



What do you see? Duck or rabbit?What do you see? Duck or rabbit?

Evidence for Gregory or Gibson?Evidence for Gregory or Gibson?



• Remember the question !!

• Is the world OUT THERE to be seen? Bottom Up perception

• (Gibson=nature)• Do we construct the world that we see? Top

Down perception • (Gregory=nurture)



• As you view this is your brain testing a hypothesis?



The end

deregowski (1972) pictorial perception and culture

Documents

culture slide

pictorial perception

gregory slide

nurture slide

perception gregory

culture study

nearer slide

rod slide