Publications

Authors:

Bianchi, Ivana; Savardi, Ugo

Title:

Contrariety in plane mirror reflections

Year:

2009

Type of item:

Contributo in volume (Capitolo o Saggio)

Tipologia ANVUR:

Contributo in volume (Capitolo o Saggio)

Language:

Inglese

Format:

A Stampa

Book Title:

The perception and cognition of contraries

Publisher:

McGrow-Hill

ISBN:

9788838672262

Page numbers:

113-128

Keyword:

Perception; Cognition; Mirror; Experimental Phenomenology; Contrary; Opposition

Short description of contents:

The idea that contrariety is one of the components of mirror images is, in one sense or another, the starting point of all the literature which has evolved in the field of psychology under the umbrella of the “mirror question”: why do mirrors reverse left and right but not up and down?. This has been in the main stream of discussion concerning mirror reflections in Cognitive Sciences from the nineteen seventies to the very beginning of the present century (Bennet, 1970; Corballis & Beale, 1976; Ittelson, 1993; Ittelson, Mowafy & Magid, 1991; Gardner, 1964; Haig, 1993; Tabata & Okuda, 2000; Corballis, 2000; Morris, 1993; Navon, 1987, 2001; Takano, 1998; Gregory, 1987, 1996). From that time on, naïve optics emerged as a new chapter in naïve physics, and researchers started to direct their attention towards a new sample of questions concerning what people know about mirrors and the behavior of reflections: 1. is the optical law of reflection (i.e. that reflected rays are at the same angle as incident rays) generally known by naïve adult subjects? − see Croucher, Bertamini & Hecht, 2002); 2. when approaching a mirror walking parallel to it, at what point would people expect to see themselves appear in the mirror? Would they expect to appear at the nearest or farthest edge of the mirror? (See Bertamini, Hecht & Spooner, 2003; Croucher, et al. 2002; Hecht, Bertamini & Gamer, 2005; Lawson & Bertamini, 2006; Jones & Bertamini, submitted).

Note:

The inspiration for this book originated from an intention to show that in the architecture of human cognition the experience of contrariety is widespread and common to many areas of theoretical and experimental research in the Cognitive Sciences. Since the subject is approached with different operational mind-sets, the variety of meanings, applicative contexts and fields of research referring to the word "contrary" raises the issue of what is invariant in all these areas and what is the ultimate nature of contrariety. Beyond the many questions which this book raises, we might consider how many more questions we might need to ask in order to fully understand how contrariety works in our cognitive system. This is something that cannot be resolved with things as they are now, but the aim of this book is also to stimulate people into asking further questions.

Web page:

http://www.catalogo.mcgraw-hill.it/catLibro.asp?item_id=2529

Product ID:

56649

Handle IRIS:

11562/342927

Deposited On:

May 22, 2010

Last Modified:

November 14, 2022

Bibliographic citation:

Bianchi, Ivana; Savardi, Ugo, Contrariety in plane mirror reflections The perception and cognition of contraries , Savardi U. , McGrow-Hill , 2009 , pp. 113-128

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