Unconscious assumptions about the environment According to Helmholtz’s theory of unconscious inference, sensory information received by our eyes is often incomplete or ambiguous. The brain therefore uses past experience and unconscious assumptions about the environment to construct the most likely perception. For example, when one object partly covers another, we usually perceive the covered object […]

More than 2,600 years ago, an Egyptian pharaoh reportedly attempted to answer a fascinating question: If children never heard anyone speak, what language would they naturally begin to use? The account is often described as the first recorded psychological or psycholinguistic experiment. Although it would not qualify as a valid or ethical scientific study today, […]