A New Word??

[elliemay1]

This word, 'PAREIDOLIA' and definition is on my little motto calendar today. Without googling would you know what it means?

[Mamyalynne]

No, I didn't.

[aelmpvw]

no :-)

[elliemay1]

I didn't either

[Mamyalynne]

It affects us all at one time or another.

[Cloverjo]

I didn’t. It’s not in Chambers dictionary.
Interesting word. Have you got any others?

[elliemay1]

Thought it might be a good quiz qn

[Ken4155]

Wouldn't have had a Scooby without uncle Google. Someone is bound to pretend they knew :-/

[Ken4155]

Mamya, I must suffer from it all the time. I'm always seeing shapes or faces in everyday objects. Particularly in patterns of the wallpaper I am applying at the time.

[AuntPollyGrey]

I did not know what it meant but I've definitely got it. I drive people mad saying 'can you see that face in (insert inanimate object).

[elliemay1]

I do that too Ken, never knew there was a word for it. You would think it should be in Chambers, Cloverjo

[jazzyjen]

Yes, I knew that. I first came across it when looking at NASA pictures from Mars. Certain rocky structures were being likened to known human artefacts.

[Ken4155]

Told ya :-))

[tiggerblue10]

Without googling or looking at previous replies, I used to hear it mentioned on Most Haunted.

[jno]

it's very common, Ken

https://scx1.b-cdn.net/csz/news/800/2014/4-researchersf.png

[Apc2604]

I thought this was going to be about TTT!

[Cloverjo]

I think we all have it. We’re programmed to search out for faces and see them in patterns, light switches, all sorts. Remember the house that looked like Hitler?

[Old_Geezer]

Still don't.

[Mamyalynne]

Use a search engine O_G

[Mamyalynne]

That reminds me Ken, I had a friendly polar bear that would keep me company in the cold dimly lamplit outside loo as a child, he lived in the peeling whitewash of the wall.

I now have Charles Bonnet syndrome and if I were a better artist I could paint and sell what I see sometimes, though not always pleasant.

[Peter Pedant]

yeah I get it alot
The retina was designed by God to detect light and dark ( erm yeah) and also movement across it.
very sensitive to that
first described by Colin Blakemore 1968

Now an hallucination is a percept without stimulus - you mean like - TTT has an IQ of 200 or something?
yes exactly

but pareidolia is when there is a stimulus in a damaged retina and the brain v obligingly fills in with the previous best guess.

so a movement is interpreted as a rat or a mouse
or spider just going under the furniture
( easy test - if the dog stays mum, it is pareidolia)

you get used to it