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by Eagle2 on February 3rd, 2007

Eagle2

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If people are all different would it mean that what they'd see would completly different to what you see? eg a square could look like a circle in someone else eyes - if so - creepy!

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  • by Anonymous on February 3rd, 2007

    Anonymous

    I've actually thought about this before... I mean, if you think about it, we aren't really SEEING the things around us the way we think we are, we're seeing how our brain interprets the light that reflects off of the objects around us. So isn't it possible that someone else's brain interprets the color blue a bit differently than your own brain does? Or perhaps someone else sees a texture differently, etc.

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  • by ChrisDG on February 4th, 2007

    ChrisDG

    OK, colour perception is performed by the absorption of light by cone photoreceptors in the eye. The cones each contain pigments called opsins, which absorb light at different wavelengths. Cone photoreceptors have three pigments that absorb light best at wavelengths of 420nm (blue), 531nm (green) or 558nm (red). However, each on has a band of absroption that overlap. Compare this to rod photoreceptors which are more sensitive to light but only have one pigment, so can't detect colours in the same way.

    So when a photon hits the photoreceptor, it will be absorbed at whichever opsin(s) are at the correct wavelength, and the differences in absoption by different opsins are presumed to account for colour differentiation.

    How this is perceived as colour is quite complex, but in short, the movement of ions across the cell membrane produces a current which produces the neural signal to the optic nerve that the brain then processes. Because colour differentiation relies on the production on opsins, chances are your opsin pigments are subtly different to someone elses. In fact, if you're like me, you actually percieve colours slightly differently between each of your own eyes (my right eye percieves colours as 'warmer', more red/yellow, my left ever so slightly 'colder' more blue). So yes, people interpret colours slightly differently to others, but the majority of people interprete them as similar. Colour blindness occurs when one of the pigment mechnisms is lost.

    However shape is perceived due to the actual location of the photoreceptors. When the light is reflected from, say a square, it will enter the eye and be focussed via the lens onto the photoreceptors in a square shape. Just as taking a photo of a square will produce a square image, because that is the shape of the pattern of light that enters the camera, so it is with the eye. So two people with normal eyesight will see the same shape, but perhaps in subtly different colours.

    Shape recognition would only be different following brain injury/neural maldevelopment, when the brain interprets the sgnals wrong. But the actual photoreceptors stimulated would be the same, it's just that the signal is scrambled. The other case when it would diffeer is if the person is colour blind and cannot distinguish a red square in a green circle for example, they might only see the outer circle.

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  • by Drublic on February 3rd, 2007

    Drublic

    Seeing things in different shapes aren't really feasible. They are a physical shape and unless someone's eyesight is bad, they would see it as is. The discussion about seeing things in a different color may be feasible, as well as how things taste. But seeing the actual shape of something is not a possibility.

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  • by staffie on February 3rd, 2007

    staffie

    yeah everyone is different no 2 people are the same. but be serious a circle is a circle no matter who you are lol

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  • by Stableboy on February 4th, 2007

    Stableboy

    We have common characteristics and we have differences. It isn't all-or-nothing.

    One of the things we have in common is that our visual and perceptual systems (when working normally) all see shapes pretty much the same way. In addition, we have communication (language) which standardizes the terms for "square" and "circle", and distributes those terms so that there is common agreement. Thus when children are trained, they learn the correct terms -- barring malfunction of the brain, etc.

    An example of where we're different is that some people may prefer circles while others prefer squares and others have no preference. Another example would be that different artists might use these shapes in different ways.

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  • by tripwire on February 4th, 2007

    tripwire

    We all see the same things if we don't have some strange condition of the brain, but our perceptions or interpretations may be as diverse as we are. I think we all basically see the same geometric shapes. Colours too, except for the colour blind.

    There are however some people who have extremely bizarre conditions of the brain which affect the way they see things. I remember one documentary I saw in which the patients with a brain condition could only see half of everything they looked at. Half people, half cups of tea, half T.Vs everything! Others saw demonic faces on everyone around them.
    Then there are the effects of psychedelic drugs like LSD, or other hallucinogenic chemicals. They are able to generate powerful images that are as real as those we consider reality in our normal state. Hallucinations which some describe as almost spiritual in their intensity. Brain chemistry can have a profound influence on how visual information is processed and projected upon the conscience. So perhaps to a certain extent, the variations in brain chemistry which fall with the range of normality, could conceivably produce slight differences in the recognition of objects, but perhaps not enough to make a circle into a square.

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  • by Eagle2 on February 4th, 2007

    Eagle2

    Right - i mean - were all tought at school what things are - what a square is what the colour blue looks like - whos to say that all my senses (see,taste,hear,feel,smell) are completely different to yours - i see the colour blue as blue but you could say the same the only differance is you could see black and call it blue because its the way you were taght at school.

    Does anyone understand what i mean now if not i'll edit some more but i hope you know where im going.

    another example - when you taste a sweet bluberry someone else could be tasting a sour blackberry but say its sweet and its a blueberrie because they were taught this at school.

    id love to do an experiment to prove my hypothesis but it would be evil and cruel because id have to two kids that haven't been taght anything and id provide colours and a picture and id wait for them to draw what they see. then you could tell if the shape and the colour look completely different to each one!

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