How not to study perception

The image above appeared in a New York Times blog which can be found here. According to the blog it depicts

"...Adelbert Ames at Dartmouth from 1920-1947. He created
aberrations in the visual world, and then tested subjects.
He concluded that what we “see” is determined by what we
want to see, what we expect to see, and what we have been trained to see. "

and further:

"Ames’s idea is an important one — how we see the world is conditioned by our expectations, cultural and otherwise. Ames’s conclusion: vision is not “stimulus bound.” It is not solely determined by the image on the retina."

But, I think everyone would agree that the photograph does not depict representative design in the study of perception. To what extent do Ames's (inventor of the Ames Room and the window illusion) conclusions result from a research paradigm that excludes important aspects of how we perceive the world?

Brunswik Meeting video

I ended up shooting some video from my seat at the Brunswik meeting in Long Beach November 16 and 17. I spliced the unedited clips together into a 26 minute video. The quality is uneven, but you might find it interesting. I didn't get video of everyone; I tended to focus on people that students in my class might have heard of but not seen. I was sampling haphazardly, and did not shoot a clip based on what people happened to be saying, except for Ken Hammond. I included extended clips of some of his stories, including his story of the development of the lens model equation, his encounter with Kahneman at the 1997 meeting in Philadelphia, and his description of the 1978 meeting photo. Ken will be 91 in January, and it was really heartwarming to see him looking so healthy and chipper.

I offer this with apologies for the videography. If you want a higher resolution version (wmv, 61 mb) click here. I could also send you a better quality file.

I'd be interested in your reaction to the video, and any thoughts about the meeting from those who were there.

The meeting program is available at http://www.brunswik.org/annualmeetings/agenda2007.pdf