Our brains fill in empty space

[Delta4Embassy]

Just noticed a typo in a thread title. And because I didn't notice it initially reading the word as it should be, this led me to recalling how our brains fill in empty space so we recognize things. Like shapes. An incomplete triangle or circle will still be recognized as triangles or circles even if the shape is incompletely drawn.

But can the way our brains work be responsible for other things too? Filling in absent information with something so we recognize it and thus can relate to, and understand it?

Religion, politics, news are some things where information is often absent but we seem to digest it nonetheless. A person may not understand how planets form so say God created the planet, or is responsible for evolution, etc. We all recognize what's being discussed when we read 'planet formation' or 'evolution' despite not understanding the ins and outs of the science behind them so fill in the gaps of our understanding with God. Thus we recognize the ideas being discussed.

 

[ABikerSailor]

All these are good questions, and if you want them answered, check out Nat Geo's new series Brain Games, and another one called Psych Games.

They explain the answers to those questions quite nicely, and even have visual examples to play along with.

Yes...............our brains "fill in" missing information to try to make sense of what we are perceiving.

 

[Asclepias]

Just noticed a typo in a thread title. And because I didn't notice it initially reading the word as it should be, this led me to recalling how our brains fill in empty space so we recognize things. Like shapes. An incomplete triangle or circle will still be recognized as triangles or circles even if the shape is incompletely drawn.

But can the way our brains work be responsible for other things too? Filling in absent information with something so we recognize it and thus can relate to, and understand it?

Religion, politics, news are some things where information is often absent but we seem to digest it nonetheless. A person may not understand how planets form so say God created the planet, or is responsible for evolution, etc. We all recognize what's being discussed when we read 'planet formation' or 'evolution' despite not understanding the ins and outs of the science behind them so fill in the gaps of our understanding with God. Thus we recognize the ideas being discussed.

Of course it does. Nature abhors a vacuum. So does the human mind because we have to categorize everything.

 

[Correll]

Just noticed a typo in a thread title. And because I didn't notice it initially reading the word as it should be, this led me to recalling how our brains fill in empty space so we recognize things. Like shapes. An incomplete triangle or circle will still be recognized as triangles or circles even if the shape is incompletely drawn.

But can the way our brains work be responsible for other things too? Filling in absent information with something so we recognize it and thus can relate to, and understand it?

Religion, politics, news are some things where information is often absent but we seem to digest it nonetheless. A person may not understand how planets form so say God created the planet, or is responsible for evolution, etc. We all recognize what's being discussed when we read 'planet formation' or 'evolution' despite not understanding the ins and outs of the science behind them so fill in the gaps of our understanding with God. Thus we recognize the ideas being discussed.

You conflating pattern recognition with conforming.

Pattern recognition fills is blanks is we only see part of the pattern, often correctly. Or we would all be dead.


THe big cat that you see prowling on the far side of the pond, doesn't have to look exactly like the one that ate Zog last year for you to be afraid of it and take appropriate steps (run away).

Conformity, where you accept what everyone around you says it the answer even if you don't understand it? Something else.

And isn't just with religion. Anyone that accepts scientific answers without understanding them is doing the same thing.

 

[there4eyeM]

Well, just go into an empty space and see if your brain fills.

 

[william the wie]

A far more famous example are the equity markets. You can go to the site EODDATA and get daily closes going back more than 30 years. It is quite possible to demonstrate both that there is a 97% correlation to normal distribution and that the correlation is only 62.5%. It makes things interesting.

 

[Asclepias]

Just noticed a typo in a thread title. And because I didn't notice it initially reading the word as it should be, this led me to recalling how our brains fill in empty space so we recognize things. Like shapes. An incomplete triangle or circle will still be recognized as triangles or circles even if the shape is incompletely drawn.

But can the way our brains work be responsible for other things too? Filling in absent information with something so we recognize it and thus can relate to, and understand it?

Religion, politics, news are some things where information is often absent but we seem to digest it nonetheless. A person may not understand how planets form so say God created the planet, or is responsible for evolution, etc. We all recognize what's being discussed when we read 'planet formation' or 'evolution' despite not understanding the ins and outs of the science behind them so fill in the gaps of our understanding with God. Thus we recognize the ideas being discussed.

You conflating pattern recognition with conforming.

Pattern recognition fills is blanks is we only see part of the pattern, often correctly. Or we would all be dead.


THe big cat that you see prowling on the far side of the pond, doesn't have to look exactly like the one that ate Zog last year for you to be afraid of it and take appropriate steps (run away).

Conformity, where you accept what everyone around you says it the answer even if you don't understand it? Something else.

And isn't just with religion. Anyone that accepts scientific answers without understanding them is doing the same thing.

So does conforming. We rationalize that the concept must be correct in order to maintain our safe spot in the social order.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Just noticed a typo in a thread title. And because I didn't notice it initially reading the word as it should be, this led me to recalling how our brains fill in empty space so we recognize things. Like shapes. An incomplete triangle or circle will still be recognized as triangles or circles even if the shape is incompletely drawn.

But can the way our brains work be responsible for other things too? Filling in absent information with something so we recognize it and thus can relate to, and understand it?

Religion, politics, news are some things where information is often absent but we seem to digest it nonetheless. A person may not understand how planets form so say God created the planet, or is responsible for evolution, etc. We all recognize what's being discussed when we read 'planet formation' or 'evolution' despite not understanding the ins and outs of the science behind them so fill in the gaps of our understanding with God. Thus we recognize the ideas being discussed.

You conflating pattern recognition with conforming.

Pattern recognition fills is blanks is we only see part of the pattern, often correctly. Or we would all be dead.


THe big cat that you see prowling on the far side of the pond, doesn't have to look exactly like the one that ate Zog last year for you to be afraid of it and take appropriate steps (run away).

Conformity, where you accept what everyone around you says it the answer even if you don't understand it? Something else.

And isn't just with religion. Anyone that accepts scientific answers without understanding them is doing the same thing.

'Ate Zog...?' Farside reference?

 

[Correll]

Just noticed a typo in a thread title. And because I didn't notice it initially reading the word as it should be, this led me to recalling how our brains fill in empty space so we recognize things. Like shapes. An incomplete triangle or circle will still be recognized as triangles or circles even if the shape is incompletely drawn.

But can the way our brains work be responsible for other things too? Filling in absent information with something so we recognize it and thus can relate to, and understand it?

Religion, politics, news are some things where information is often absent but we seem to digest it nonetheless. A person may not understand how planets form so say God created the planet, or is responsible for evolution, etc. We all recognize what's being discussed when we read 'planet formation' or 'evolution' despite not understanding the ins and outs of the science behind them so fill in the gaps of our understanding with God. Thus we recognize the ideas being discussed.

You conflating pattern recognition with conforming.

Pattern recognition fills is blanks is we only see part of the pattern, often correctly. Or we would all be dead.


THe big cat that you see prowling on the far side of the pond, doesn't have to look exactly like the one that ate Zog last year for you to be afraid of it and take appropriate steps (run away).

Conformity, where you accept what everyone around you says it the answer even if you don't understand it? Something else.

And isn't just with religion. Anyone that accepts scientific answers without understanding them is doing the same thing.

'Ate Zog...?' Farside reference?

Mmm, I guess it was, but not on purpose, just reaching for a cave man sounding name.

 

[ABikerSailor]

The Science channel has a really good series on this. One of them is called Brain Games which tells you how your brain interprets the world around you, and the other is called Outrageous Acts of Psych, which is about human behavior.

I recommend watching them if you have cable, they can teach you a lot, and show you how to keep from being manipulated by advertising or other people.