Introduction
We like to think we see the world as it truly is. After all, our senses seem to provide an accurate picture of reality most of the time. But what if much of what we perceive is actually an illusion created by our own minds?
In his book "Deviate: The Science of Seeing Differently," neuroscientist Beau Lotto challenges our assumptions about perception and reveals the surprising ways our brains construct our experience of reality. Drawing on decades of research, Lotto shows how our perceptions are shaped by context, past experiences, and unconscious assumptions - often in ways we don't realize.
By understanding the quirks and limitations of human perception, Lotto argues we can learn to see the world in new ways, unlocking greater creativity and innovation. This book provides a fascinating look at how our minds work and offers practical insights for expanding our perspectives.
The Illusion of Objective Reality
One of the core ideas in "Deviate" is that there is no such thing as truly objective perception. While there may be an objective physical reality out there, our brains don't have direct access to it. Instead, everything we experience is filtered and interpreted by our minds.
Lotto uses several compelling examples to illustrate this point. One is the famous "dress illusion" that went viral in 2015, where people looking at the same photo of a dress saw it as either blue and black or white and gold. This optical illusion revealed how two people can look at the exact same visual input and perceive it completely differently.
Other common optical illusions further demonstrate how our visual perception can be tricked. For instance, two identically shaded circles can appear to be different colors when surrounded by contrasting backgrounds. Or a stationary object can seem to be moving when viewed next to something that is actually in motion.
These illusions occur because our brains are constantly making assumptions and interpretations based on context and past experiences. We don't passively receive sensory information - our minds actively construct our perceptions.
This constructed nature of perception applies to all our senses, not just vision. Our experience of sound, taste, touch, and smell are all interpretations created by our brains based on sensory inputs. In many cases, these interpretations are useful approximations that help us navigate the world. But they are not perfect representations of objective reality.
Understanding that our perceptions are constructions rather than direct observations of reality has profound implications. It means we can't always trust our senses or assume our view of the world is the "correct" one. But it also means we have the potential to change how we see things by altering our mental frameworks and assumptions.
The Brain as an Information Processor
To understand why our perceptions can be so malleable, it's helpful to look at how the brain processes information. Lotto explains that our brains evolved not to perceive reality with perfect accuracy, but to help us survive and thrive in our environments.
The world contains an overwhelming amount of sensory information at any given moment. Our brains have to filter and prioritize this flood of data to make it manageable. We've evolved to pay attention to certain types of information that were important for survival, while ignoring or downplaying other inputs.
For example, humans can only see a narrow slice of the electromagnetic spectrum that we call visible light. We can't perceive infrared, ultraviolet, or other types of radiation directly. Our brains have simply evolved to focus on the most useful part of the spectrum for our needs.
Even within the information we do take in, our brains have to interpret and make sense of complex, often ambiguous inputs. When we look at a landscape, for instance, the visual information hitting our retinas is a jumble of light, shadow, color, and movement. Our brains have to parse this into coherent objects and scenes based on past learning.
This interpretive process means that context plays a huge role in how we perceive things. The exact same sensory input can be interpreted very differently depending on what surrounds it or what we expect to see. This is why optical illusions work - they exploit the assumptions our brains make when processing visual information.
Lotto argues that all of our perceptions involve this kind of interpretation and meaning-making by the brain. There is no such thing as raw, unfiltered sensory data reaching our conscious awareness. Everything we experience has already been processed and contextualized by our minds.
The Adaptable Brain
While our brains make many automatic assumptions when processing sensory data, they also have a remarkable capacity for adaptation and learning. Through interaction with our environments, we can train our brains to perceive and interpret the world in new ways.
Lotto shares the fascinating example of Ben Anderson, who lost his sight at age three but learned to navigate the world through echolocation - making clicking sounds with his tongue and interpreting the echoes. This shows how flexible the human brain can be in developing new perceptual abilities.
Other research has demonstrated how quickly our brains can incorporate new sensory inputs. In one study, participants wore belts that vibrated to indicate magnetic north. After just a few weeks, their brains had integrated this new sense of direction, improving their spatial awareness and navigation skills.
The key to developing our perceptual abilities is active engagement with diverse stimuli. Studies on rats have shown that those placed in enriched environments with lots of objects to interact with develop more neural connections than rats in bare cages. The same principle applies to humans - exposing ourselves to novel experiences, art, ideas, and people throughout life helps keep our brains adaptable and sharp.
This adaptability means we have the potential to expand our perceptual and cognitive abilities throughout our lives. By consciously engaging with the world in new ways, we can literally change our brains and how we see reality.
The Power of Context
One of the most important factors shaping our perceptions is context. The same sensory input can be interpreted very differently depending on what surrounds it or what we expect to see.
Lotto shares the story of how this principle was discovered in the 1800s by Michel Chevreul, a chemist investigating complaints about the royal tapestry factory in Paris. Customers were unhappy that threads purchased from the factory looked duller at home than in the showroom. After extensive research, Chevreul realized the threads weren't actually changing - they just appeared more vivid when woven together in tapestries due to the contrast between colors.
This insight about how context affects color perception laid the groundwork for much of our modern understanding of how the brain processes visual information. We now know that our perception of color, brightness, size, and other visual qualities is heavily influenced by surrounding stimuli and our expectations.
Context doesn't just affect vision - it shapes all our sensory experiences and interpretations of the world. For instance, our perception of language sounds is influenced by the phonetic distinctions that exist in our native tongue. English speakers easily distinguish between "R" and "L" sounds, while Japanese speakers often struggle with this since their language doesn't make this distinction.
Even our memories and past experiences provide an important context that shapes how we perceive things in the present. Our brains are constantly drawing on past learning to interpret new situations. This can be very useful for quickly recognizing patterns and potential threats. But it can also lead us to overlook details that don't fit our expectations or to misinterpret ambiguous information.
Understanding the power of context gives us a tool for potentially altering our perceptions. By changing the context - either external stimuli or our internal mental frameworks - we may be able to see things in a new light.
Conscious Control of Perception
While much of our perceptual processing happens automatically and unconsciously, we do have some ability to consciously influence how we see the world. Our capacity for imagination and abstract thought allows us to create meaning and alter our interpretations of sensory input.
Lotto uses the example of abstract art to illustrate this point. When viewers look at a simple black square painted by Kazimir Malevich, they don't just see a shape and color. They imbue it with meaning based on their knowledge of art history, aesthetic theory, and the artist's intent. The physical stimulus is simple, but the perception can be rich and complex.
We can also consciously alter our perception of more mundane stimuli. There's a famous optical illusion of a spinning figure that can be perceived as rotating either clockwise or counterclockwise. By consciously imagining it moving in a particular direction, viewers can make themselves see it rotating that way.
This demonstrates that what we perceive is not just a function of the sensory input, but also of how we choose to interpret it. Our conscious thoughts and expectations play a role in shaping our perceptions of reality.
Research has shown that many aspects of perception are subtly influenced by our emotional states, beliefs, and past experiences. Poor children tend to perceive coins as larger than rich children do. People who are tired perceive hills as steeper than those who are well-rested. These effects occur largely outside of conscious awareness, but they show how our internal mental states affect our experience of the external world.
By becoming more aware of how our minds construct our perceptions, we can potentially gain more conscious control over this process. This doesn't mean we can simply imagine any reality we want - our perceptions are still constrained by sensory input. But we may be able to expand our perspectives and see things in new ways by consciously reframing our interpretations.
The Role of Assumptions
While our ability to imagine and reinterpret the world gives us some flexibility, our perceptions are also heavily shaped by unconscious assumptions. Every experience we have creates patterns of neural connections in our brains. When we encounter new situations, we automatically draw on these existing patterns to make sense of things.
This reliance on past patterns and assumptions can be very useful. It allows us to quickly recognize similar situations and potential threats without having to analyze everything from scratch. But it can also limit our ability to perceive things in new ways or come up with creative solutions to problems.
Lotto shares the story of how the Rosetta Stone was deciphered to illustrate how assumptions can block understanding. For years, linguists assumed the hieroglyphics on the stone represented whole words or concepts. It wasn't until Jean-François Champollion questioned this assumption and considered that they might represent sounds that the code was cracked.
Our assumptions about the world are often so ingrained that we don't even realize we're making them. That's why it can be so hard to solve tricky puzzles or brain teasers - we get stuck in habitual ways of thinking. The famous "candle problem" stumps many people because they assume the box holding the tacks can only be used as a container, not as a potential shelf for the candle.
Even skills we think we've mastered can be disrupted when our assumptions are challenged. Lotto describes an experiment with a "backwards bicycle" where the steering is reversed. Even experienced cyclists struggle to ride it because it violates their ingrained assumptions about how bikes work.
The takeaway is that many of our perceptions and behaviors rely on unconscious assumptions that we've built up over time. To think creatively and see the world in new ways, we often need to surface and question these assumptions. This isn't easy, but it's a crucial skill for innovation and problem-solving.
Embracing Uncertainty
One of the biggest obstacles to seeing the world in new ways is our innate discomfort with uncertainty. Humans have evolved to crave certainty and avoid the unknown. This made sense in our ancestral environment, where wandering into unfamiliar territory could be dangerous.
But in the modern world, our aversion to uncertainty often holds us back. It makes us cling to old assumptions and habitual ways of thinking rather than exploring new possibilities. Lotto argues that embracing uncertainty is key to expanding our perceptions and thinking creatively.
He cites research showing that people experience more stress when facing the possibility of pain than when they know pain is definitely coming. This demonstrates how uncomfortable humans are with ambiguity and the unknown.
Our desire for certainty often leads us to jump to conclusions or make snap judgments without considering alternative interpretations. For instance, if someone bumps into us rudely, we might immediately label them as a jerk. But if we pause and embrace uncertainty, we might realize there could be other explanations for their behavior.
Lotto suggests that we can train ourselves to be more comfortable with uncertainty by consciously pausing between experiences and our reactions to them. By acknowledging that we don't have all the information and considering multiple possibilities, we open ourselves up to new perspectives.
This approach requires mental effort and can feel uncomfortable at first. But over time, it can help us break free from rigid thought patterns and see the world in more nuanced, creative ways.
Balancing Play and Efficiency
When it comes to innovation and creative thinking, Lotto emphasizes the importance of balancing unstructured exploration with focused problem-solving. He uses the analogy of evolution in nature, where random mutations create variety that is then shaped by natural selection.
In the realm of ideas, the initial stage of innovation should involve open-ended "play" - following curiosity, trying new approaches, and generating a variety of concepts without worrying too much about practical applications. This "blue-sky thinking" allows for truly novel ideas to emerge.
Only after generating a lot of possibilities should we shift into a more analytical mode of evaluating and refining ideas. Trying to come up with practical solutions right from the start often limits creativity by making too many assumptions about what's possible or desirable.
Lotto gives the example of a lab studying cockroach locomotion. The researchers started by simply observing how the insects move, driven by curiosity. This open-ended exploration eventually led to insights that were applied to create a robot that can navigate rough terrain.
This two-stage approach of expansive exploration followed by focused refinement can be applied in any field, from scientific research to artistic creation. The key is allowing time and space for unstructured thinking before narrowing down to practical applications.
Organizations and individuals that want to foster innovation should create what Lotto calls an "ecology of innovation" - an environment that encourages both playful exploration and efficient development of ideas.
Practical Applications
While much of "Deviate" focuses on the science of perception, Lotto also offers some practical advice for applying these insights in everyday life:
Question your assumptions: Regularly pause to examine the unconscious beliefs and mental frameworks shaping your perceptions. Ask yourself if there might be other ways of interpreting a situation.
Seek out diverse experiences: Expose yourself to new ideas, cultures, and ways of thinking. This helps keep your brain flexible and open to novel perspectives.
Embrace uncertainty: When facing a problem or decision, resist the urge to jump to conclusions. Consider multiple possibilities and be okay with ambiguity.
Practice mindfulness: Pay attention to your sensory experiences and how your mind interprets them. This can help you become more aware of your perceptual processes.
Engage in unstructured play: Make time for open-ended exploration and creativity without worrying about practical outcomes. This can lead to unexpected insights.
Change your context: Alter your physical or mental environment to shift your perspective. Something as simple as rearranging your workspace can spark new ways of thinking.
Collaborate with others: Engage with people who have different backgrounds and viewpoints. This can help you see beyond your own assumptions.
Learn new skills: Tackling unfamiliar tasks challenges your brain to form new neural connections and can enhance cognitive flexibility.
By applying these principles, Lotto argues we can expand our perceptual and cognitive abilities, leading to greater creativity and innovation in all areas of life.
Conclusion
"Deviate" offers a fascinating exploration of how our brains construct our experience of reality. By understanding the quirks and limitations of human perception, we can learn to see the world in new ways.
Key takeaways from the book include:
- Our perceptions are not direct observations of reality, but interpretations created by our brains.
- Context plays a huge role in shaping how we perceive and interpret sensory information.
- Our past experiences and unconscious assumptions heavily influence how we see the world.
- We have some ability to consciously alter our perceptions through imagination and reframing.
- Embracing uncertainty and questioning our assumptions are key to expanding our perspectives.
- Innovation requires balancing unstructured exploration with focused problem-solving.
Lotto's work challenges us to recognize the constructed nature of our realities and take a more active role in shaping our perceptions. By understanding how our minds work, we can learn to see differently - opening up new possibilities for creativity, problem-solving, and understanding ourselves and others.
While we may never perceive objective reality directly, we can expand our subjective realities in powerful ways. "Deviate" shows us how the quirks of our perceptual systems, far from being limitations, can be gateways to new ways of thinking and experiencing the world.
The book leaves readers with a sense of wonder at the complexity of human perception and the potential for growth and change throughout our lives. By learning to see differently, we can literally change our brains and our experience of reality. This empowering message invites us all to question our assumptions, embrace uncertainty, and explore the vast possibilities of human perception.