This is a pretty interesting article that was just posted on Slashdot. It summarizes some pretty cool findings that should be of interest to philosophers interested in issues related to epistemology and perception.
It turns out that there are many cases in which what people expect to see tricks them into thinking they saw it. For example, they had people watch someone throw two balls. The thrower then pretended to throw a third ball. Most people think they see a third ball that suddenly disappears in mid-air. They don’t even realize that a third ball wasn’t thrown. Their first thought is usually that the person somehow made the third ball disappear.
The research article that Slashdot summarizes is available here.
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