tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30224618.post1271884949440172668..comments2023-10-01T05:32:19.823-04:00Comments on The Mind's Language: Colorful SensesNeerajahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07813033087957007755noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30224618.post-12644288554960897662009-03-11T15:27:00.000-04:002009-03-11T15:27:00.000-04:00Perception - That's quite true... human emotions a...Perception - That's quite true... human emotions are quite subjective. Two people can be exposed to identical circumstances yet due to their unique needs and views, they will surely have different emotional responses. Definitely the environment and nurture feeds into our likes/perceptions/views etc...Neerajahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07813033087957007755noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30224618.post-20752277990590736492009-03-11T14:18:00.000-04:002009-03-11T14:18:00.000-04:00This is such an interesting thought. What comes to...This is such an interesting thought. What comes to my mind is how ones happiness can be perceived as some one elses sorrow. But SecondSight's story bring out another thought, is it the way we are taught to perceive things around us, right from childhood that makes us feel about those things?Perceptionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00920083979235188445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30224618.post-18379696783606974012009-03-10T08:03:00.000-04:002009-03-10T08:03:00.000-04:00Oorjas- Very true, I completely agree with you. An...Oorjas- Very true, I completely agree with you. And the example with the infant is a good one - some aspects are implicitly wired within us... spontaneous responses to physical events.<BR/><BR/>Sumi - I can't agree more :). Conceptualizing new colors (creativity) is a good example of the need of unique experiences to reach beyond factual understanding. And yes, I too have thought of this color-illusion when I was young (due to Matrix's influence :)), and was pleasantly surprised that it was a documented problem!<BR/><BR/>SecondSight - Oh yes, I forgot synesthetes! Well, their condition is more of an aberration or an exception. But unarguably their visual experience of colors and numbers cannot be compared to non-synesthetes. Although if I trained my mind to associate colors with numbers, my visual experiences might change accordingly. <BR/><BR/>Very interesting story! We usually tend to call such people partially color blind, and they believe themselves to be so, for it's impossible for them to argue that they are seeing the colors we are seeing but interpreting them differently! But I wonder what sort of perceptions/interpretations colors can incite? If no one had taught me what are the names of colors, what sort of interpretations would I have of them? Grass will be color X and so will be the color of leaves. But if I called the color of leaves not to be the same as that of grass (since some leaves are of darker shades)I can get into a debate. I could call the darker shade of green as red and people would refute me, although my perception is true! So it's tricky... if a person develops different perceptions of colors he would be an interesting and valued research participant!! :)Neerajahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07813033087957007755noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30224618.post-13969541403422472072009-03-09T13:15:00.000-04:002009-03-09T13:15:00.000-04:00A rather complicated issue.. what really is going ...A rather complicated issue.. what really is going on inside another person's head?:) Two random things come to mind.. one is synesthesia, a sort of cross-connection in the brain when people end up associating two unrelated things to each other- for example, the number 9 and the color red. A synesthete could be reading this and see that 9 in a red font! If Mary being an achromat is a problem in her research, what happens if someone can see colors, but their interpretation of them is so skewed that it doesnt correlate to popular perception anymore? does that perception still count?<BR/>On that note.. there's this short story by Maugham (I think)- about a man who goes about re-naming all the objects around him (calling a chair a table, and so on..)-until he gets to a point where no one can understand him anymore.. so, does his understanding of these objects still count? :)SecondSighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08197882820971051607noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30224618.post-66710785386081630502009-03-09T00:44:00.000-04:002009-03-09T00:44:00.000-04:00With sensory concepts, understanding seems incompl...With sensory concepts, understanding seems incomplete without the experience. Understanding colours and colour perception merely as a concept somehow feels like no understanding at all; if we have seen a certain two colours, we could however extrapolate and imagine a colour that would be formed by their combination, though we might have not seen that exact colour. Yet, this understanding seems more like a 'real' understanding, despite the absense of the actual colour in question, than knowing colours as concepts and not having seen any colour at all. <BR/><BR/>I believe in the existence of a body and a mind too, and do not believe in a purely reductionist theory physiological theories, so we can't argue much there.<BR/><BR/>About the idea that different people may be perceiving a certain colour differently, this occured to me once in high school and since then I have had a hard time explaining the idea to some people. Didn't know it was a concept that had already been thought of...SUMIhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15819524844711267989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30224618.post-28000121635913991962009-03-07T07:32:00.000-05:002009-03-07T07:32:00.000-05:00physically knowing all the attributes of something...physically knowing all the attributes of something can no way guarentee a person'e personal experience with anything. <BR/><BR/>we have always been told that sharp objects can cut or fire is hot. but we don't know what it means till we actually experience it.<BR/><BR/>it is like experiencing an art. one can either pay attention to all the physical things. or feel the essence of it. in case of music if one keeps track of the raag, Taal, Lyrics, instruments being played they might actually miss the feel the song is trying to produce.<BR/><BR/>as in this case she might know the physical attributes of colours but when she actually sees them what she will experience is purely unique, which cannot be measured. what emotions those coulours bring about in her can never be calculated.<BR/><BR/>reactons to a sensory stimuli are not based on the facts known. if a new born is given something sour to eat, the facial expressions produced are not learnt but innate. so is with adults.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com