We tend to see connections where they do not exist

We tend to see connections where they do not exist.

When I was in 8th grade, I built a "light box" with materials purchased from a science company.  The box was blinking Christmas tree lights behind a lenticular screen that fragmented the light into patterns based on the geometry of the surface.  I had three different screens that produced three different patterns.

I noticed that when I would watch the screen, I would see animated connections between the blinking lights.  As one light would turn off, another would turn on, and the light would seem to move from one position to another.  This was purely a psychological phenomena because there was no relationship between the rates at which the different bulbs blinked.  My mind had perceived a relationship between the two events even though a relationship did not exist.

Anyone who has driven through a construction zone, where sawhorses with blinking safety lights are used to divert traffic, has noticed this.  Frequently when looking down the line of sawhorses, we see animated patterns of blinking lights.  We see the lights "move" from one sawhorse to another, even though nothing moves and the blinking is totally random.

In a similar way, we see patterns and connections in the random noise of real life.  Our brain is designed to see patterns and frequently "recognizes" patterns of connection that do not actually exist.  Some optical illusions are based on this idea.  This also create confusion in office and family politics, when we ascribe motives that do not exist.  This tendency can also be the cause of paranoia, fears, and anxiety.

This perceptual bias also leads to much superstitious belief and activity.  The "truth" and "accuracy" of such practices as Tarot Cards, Astrology, Palm Reading, and Numerology is frequently just a manifestation of this same principle that "we tend to see connections where they do not exist."  And once the mind makes such a connection, it is difficult to believe there is not a corresponding relationship in real life, but there is not.

There is nothing we can "do" about this phenomenon.  It is one of the features of having a human mind.  It is a small demonstration that perception is not passive, but intentional.  It is characteristic of what I call the "fatal flaw" of the human mind.  It is an inevitable result that "optimization of information processing schemes occasionally corrupts information itself."

But mostly, it is an amusing phenomenon that allows us to enjoy watching movies and TV and Saturday morning cartoons.

We hardly notice that

"We tend to see connections where they do not exist."

copyright(c)2015

William Schaeffer

.