======================================================================
= Pareidolia =
======================================================================
Introduction
======================================================================
Pareidolia ( ) is the tendency for incorrect perception of a stimulus
as an object, pattern or meaning known to the observer, such as seeing
shapes in clouds, seeing faces in inanimate objects or abstract
patterns, or hearing hidden messages in music. Pareidolia can be
considered a subcategory of apophenia.
Common examples are perceived images of animals, faces, or objects in
cloud formations, the Man in the Moon, the Moon rabbit, and other
lunar pareidolia. The concept of pareidolia may extend to include
hidden messages in recorded music played in reverse or at higher- or
lower-than-normal speeds, and hearing indistinct voices in random
noise such as that produced by air conditioners or fans.
Pareidolia was at one time considered a symptom of human psychosis,
but it is now seen as a normal human tendency.
Pareidolia is not confined to humans. Scientists have for years taught
computers to use visual clues to "see" faces and other images.
Etymology
======================================================================
The word derives from the Greek words 'para' (�α�ά, "beside,
alongside, instead [of]") and the noun 'eid�lon' (εἴδ�λον "image,
form, shape").
The German word 'pareidolie' was used in German articles by Dr. Karl
Ludwig Kahlbaum � for example in his 1866 paper "On Delusion of the
Senses". When Kahlbaum's paper was reviewed the following year (1867)
in 'The Journal of Mental Science', Volume 13, 'pareidolie' was
translated as pareidolia: "�partial hallucination, perception of
secondary images, or pareidolia."
Explanations
======================================================================
Pareidolia can cause people to interpret random images, or patterns of
light and shadow, as faces. A 2009 magnetoencephalography study found
that objects perceived as faces evoke an early (165 ms) activation of
the fusiform face area at a time and location similar to that evoked
by faces, whereas other common objects do not evoke such activation.
This activation is similar to a slightly faster time (130 ms) that is
seen for images of real faces. The authors suggest that face
perception evoked by face-like objects is a relatively early process,
and not a late cognitive reinterpretation phenomenon. A functional
magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study in 2011 similarly showed that
repeated presentation of novel visual shapes that were interpreted as
meaningful led to decreased fMRI responses for real objects. These
results indicate that the interpretation of ambiguous stimuli depends
upon processes similar to those elicited by known objects.
These studies help to explain why people identify a few circles and a
line as a "face" so quickly and without hesitation. Cognitive
processes are activated by the "face-like" object, which alert the
observer to both the emotional state and identity of the subject, even
before the conscious mind begins to process or even receive the
information. A "stick figure face", despite its simplicity, can convey
mood information, and be drawn to indicate emotions such as happiness
or anger. This robust and subtle capability is hypothesized to be the
result of eons of natural selection favoring people most able to
quickly identify the mental state, for example, of threatening people,
thus providing the individual an opportunity to flee or attack
pre-emptively. In other words, processing this information
subcortically - therefore subconsciously - before it is passed on to
the rest of the brain for detailed processing accelerates judgment and
decision making when a fast reaction is needed. This ability, though
highly specialized for the processing and recognition of 'human'
emotions, also functions to determine the demeanor of wildlife.
Pareidolia can be considered a subcategory of apophenia.
Mimetoliths
======================================================================
Rocks may come to mimic recognizable forms through the random
processes of formation, weathering and erosion. Most often, the size
scale of the rock is larger than the object it resembles, such as a
cliff profile resembling a human face. Well-meaning people with a new
interest in fossils can pick up chert nodules, concretions or pebbles
resembling bones, skulls, turtle shells, dinosaur eggs, etc., in both
size and shape.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Japanese researcher Chonosuke
Okamura self-published a series of reports titled 'Original Report of
the Okamura Fossil Laboratory', in which he described tiny inclusions
in polished limestone from the Silurian period (425 mya) as being
preserved fossil remains of tiny humans, gorillas, dogs, dragons,
dinosaurs and other organisms, all of them only millimeters long,
leading him to claim, "There have been no changes in the bodies of
mankind since the Silurian period... except for a growth in stature
from 3.5 mm to 1,700 mm." Okamura's research earned him an Ig Nobel
Prize (a parody of the Nobel Prizes) in biodiversity in 1996.
Projective tests
======================================================================
The Rorschach inkblot test uses pareidolia in an attempt to gain
insight into a person's mental state. The Rorschach is a projective
test, as it intentionally elicits the thoughts or feelings of
respondents that are "projected" onto the ambiguous inkblot images.
Literature and art
======================================================================
Renaissance artists and authors have shown a particular interest in
pareidolia. In William Shakespeare's play 'Hamlet', for example, the
character Hamlet points at the sky and "demonstrates" his supposed
madness in this exchange with Polonius:
HAMLET
:Do you see yonder cloud that�s almost in the shape of a camel?
POLONIUS
:By th�Mass and �tis, like a camel indeed.
HAMLET
:Methinks it is a weasel.
POLONIUS
:It is backed like a weasel.
HAMLET
:Or a whale.
POLONIUS
:Very like a whale.
Graphic artists have often used pareidolia in paintings and drawings:
Andrea Mantegna, Leonardo Da Vinci, Giotto, Hans Holbein, Giuseppe
Arcimboldo, and many more have shown images�often human faces�that due
to pareidolia appear in objects or clouds.
In his notebooks, Leonardo da Vinci wrote of pareidolia as a device
for painters, writing:
Architecture
======================================================================
Two 13th-century edifices in Turkey display architectural use of
shadows of stone carvings at the entrance. Outright pictures are
avoided in Islam but tessellations and calligraphic pictures were
allowed, so designed "accidental" silhouettes of carved stone
tesellations became a creative escape.
*Ni�de Alaaddin Mosque, Ni�de, Turkey (1223) with its "mukarnas" art
where the shadows of three-dimensional ornamentation with stone
masonry around the entrance form a chiaroscuro drawing of a woman's
face with a crown and long hair appearing at a specific time, at some
specific days of the year.
*Divri�i Great Mosque and Hospital in Sivas, Turkey (1229) shows
shadows of the 3 dimensional ornaments of both entrances of the mosque
part, to cast a giant shadow of a praying man that changes pose as the
sun moves, as if to illustrate what the purpose of the building is.
Another detail is the difference in the impressions of the clothing of
the two shadow-men indicating two different styles, possibly to tell
who is to enter through which door.
Religious
======================================================================
There have been many instances of perceptions of religious imagery and
themes, especially the faces of religious figures, in ordinary
phenomena. Many involve images of Jesus, the Virgin Mary, the word
Allah, or other religious phenomena: in September 2007 in Singapore,
for example, a callus on a tree resembled a monkey, leading believers
to pay homage to the "Monkey god" (either Sun Wukong or Hanuman) in
the monkey tree phenomenon.
Publicity surrounding sightings of religious figures and other
surprising images in ordinary objects has spawned a market for such
items on online auctions like eBay. One famous instance was a grilled
cheese sandwich with the face of the Virgin Mary.
During the September 11 attacks, television viewers supposedly saw the
face of Satan in clouds of smoke billowing out of the World Trade
Center after it was struck by the airplane. Another example of face
recognition pareidolia originated in the fire at Notre Dame Cathedral,
when a few observers claimed to see Jesus in the flames.
Mars canals
======================================================================
A notable example of pareidolia occurred in 1877, when observers using
telescopes to view the surface of Mars thought that they saw faint
straight lines, which were then interpreted by some as canals (see
Martian canal). It was theorized that the canals were possibly created
by sentient beings. This created a sensation. In the next few years
better photographic techniques and stronger telescopes were developed
and applied, which resulted in new images in which the faint lines
disappeared, and the canal theory was debunked as an example of
pareidolia.
Computer vision
======================================================================
Pareidolia can occur in computer vision, specifically in image
recognition programs, in which vague clues can spuriously detect
images or features. In the case of an artificial neural network,
higher-level features correspond to more recognizable features, and
enhancing these features brings out what the computer sees. These
examples of pareidolia reflect the training set of images that the
network has "seen" previously.
Striking visuals can be produced in this way, notably in the DeepDream
software, which falsely detects and then exaggerates features such as
eyes and faces in any image.
Speech
======================================================================
In 1971 Konstantīns Raudive wrote 'Breakthrough', detailing what he
believed was the discovery of electronic voice phenomena (EVP). EVP
has been described as auditory pareidolia. Allegations of backmasking
in popular music, in which a listener claims a message has been
recorded backward onto a track meant to be played forward, have also
been described as auditory pareidolia. In 1995, the psychologist Diana
Deutsch invented an algorithm for producing phantom words and phrases
with the sounds coming from two stereo loudspeakers, with one to the
listener's left and the other to his right. Each loudspeaker produces
a phrase consisting of two words or syllables. The same sequence is
presented repeatedly through both loudspeakers; however, they are
offset in time so that when the first sound (word or syllable) is
coming from the speaker on the left, the second sound is coming from
the speaker on the right, and vice versa. After listening for a while,
phantom words and phrases suddenly emerge, and these often appear to
reflect what is on the listener's mind, and they transform
perceptually into different words and phrases as the sequence
continues.
Related phenomena
======================================================================
A shadow person (also known as a shadow figure, shadow being or black
mass) is often attributed to pareidolia. It is the perception of a
patch of shadow as a living, humanoid figure, particularly as
interpreted by believers in the paranormal or supernatural as the
presence of a spirit or other entity.
Pareidolia is also what some skeptics believe causes people to believe
that they have seen ghosts.
Examples
======================================================================
File:Bucegi Sphinx - Romania - August 2007.jpg|The Romanian Sphinx in
Bucegi Mountains
File:McDonnell Douglas F-4S Phantom II 155848.jpg|thumb|A smiling face
on part of a military jet
File:StampOldManMountain.jpg|The Old Man of the Mountain in Franconia,
New Hampshire
File:Office wardrobe with drawers.jpg|thumb|A face in furniture
drawers
File:Heikegani.jpg|thumb|A Samurai Crab has a shell that bears a
pattern resembling the face of an angry Samurai warrior
File:Roca del elefante, Heimaey, Islas Vestman, Suðurland, Islandia,
2014-08-17, DD 036.JPG|"Elephant Rock" on Heimaey, Iceland
The Huffington Post|access-date=December 12, 2015 }} ('Curiosity'
rover; October 7, 2014)
File:Galle crater.gif|"Smiley face" in Galle Crater on Mars. ('Viking
1' orbiter; 1970s)
File:Marcahuasi1.jpg|none|thumb|"Monument to Humanity", Marcahuasi
File:Wenceslas Hollar - Landscape shaped like a face (State
1).jpg|thumb|In a work by Wenceslas Hollar a landscape appears to
resemble the head of a man lying on his back.
See also
======================================================================
* Clustering illusion
* Eigenface
* Madonna of the Toast
* Perceptions of religious imagery in natural phenomena
* Optical Illusions
;Other natural examples
* Badlands Guardian
* Face Rock State Scenic Viewpoint
* Horsehead Nebula
* Makapansgat pebble
* Runamo
* Sleeping Giant (Ontario)
External links
======================================================================
* [
http://skepdic.com/pareidol.html Skepdic.com] Skeptic's Dictionary
definition of pareidolia
*
[
https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2016/11/the-japanese-museum-of-rocks-that-look-l
ike-faces
A Japanese museum of rocks which look like faces]
* [
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/13/health/psychology/13face.html
Article in 'The New York Times', 13 February 2007, about cognitive
science of face recognition]
License
=========
All content on Gopherpedia comes from Wikipedia, and is licensed under CC-BY-SA
License URL:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareidolia
