Fundamentally misunderstanding visual perception: Adults' belief in visual emissions.

Abstract

The authors reviewed research about a profound misconception that is present among college students, namely, the belief that the process of vision includes emanations from the eyes, an idea that is consistent with the extramission theory of perception, which was originally professed by early Greek philosophers and which persisted in scholarly circles for centuries. The authors document the strength and breadth of this phenomenon and the object failure of traditional educational techniques to overcome this belief, and they reveal that students are leaving psychology courses with a flawed understanding of one of the most studied processes in the history of psychology--visual perception. Some suggestions are offered for overcoming this misconception in traditional college classroom settings.

Determination of University Students’ Misconceptions about Light Using Concept Maps

“…These misconceptions about sight have been revealed in many physics education studies. Also, Winer et al (2002) affirmed that the belief that the process of vision includes emanations from the eyes was originally professed by early Greek philosophers and which persisted in scholarly circles for centuries.…”

The tendency to overestimate what is visible in a planar mirror amongst adults and children

“…They are surprised, therefore, that we cannot see through a curved tube (Flavell, Green, Herrera, & Flavell, 1991). In children there is also a strong extramission belief, although this survives to some extent even in adults (Winer, Cottrell, Gregg, Fournier, & Bica, 2002). This is the belief that something comes out of the eye and reaches the object as part of the process of seeing.…”

Evolution and Impact of Eye and Vision Terms in Written English

“…24 Adherents to this theory included some ancients, young children, and many modern adults. 25 The importance of this concept is supported by (1) bigrams just below the threshold: inflamed, luminous, and radiant eyes, (2) the common expressions starry-eyed and twinkling of an eye [1560-], and (3) common bigrams noting the absence of the emission: dim, dull, and dark eyes. Other common bigrams suggest eye emission of energy or power: visual and eye contact (1960-), and the pierc- …”