...explore preschoolers’ and adults’ intuitions about the location of the self using a novel method that asks when an object is closet to a person. Children and adults judge objects near a person’s eyes to be closer to her than objects near other parts of her body. This holds even when considering an alien character whose eyes are located on its chest. Objects located near the eyes but out of sight are also judged to be close, suggesting that participants are not using what a person can see as a proxy for what is close to her. These findings suggest that children and adults intuitively think of the self as occupying a precise location within the body, at or near the eyes.
This blog reports new ideas and work on mind, brain, behavior, psychology, and politics - as well as random curious stuff. (Try the Dynamic Views at top of right column.)
Friday, March 23, 2012
Eyes as location of the self.
Starmans and Bloom do an interesting nugget of work showing how children and adults see the eyes as the location of the self. In three experiments they:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Very interesting.
ReplyDeleteI recently began having issues seeing with my right eye. I've been going about business as usual because my left eye at this point totally picks up the slack.
I've realized, though, that my perceived location of my own self has shifted from centre towards my left eye.