Brainworks III

I came across Rorschach's Inkblot Tests and found this interesting whilst I was studying the brain. It is a method of psychological evaluation. Psychologists use this test to try to examine the personality characteristics and emotional functioning of their patients. There are ten official inkblot, 5 are black ink on white paper, 2 are blank and red ink on white paper and 3 are muticoloured. These are shown to teh patients and the examine processes and analyses their responses. I made a few of my own inkblots by playing with ink on paper.

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During this research I came across Pareidolia, a psychological phenomenon involving vague and random stimulus being perceived as significant. Common examples are faces in clouds, Jesus in the wood and eyes in cars headlights. I took photos of things I saw that made me see something that wasn't there. Facial patterns in the curtains, faces in car lights and on houses.

Examples of pareidolia

Example of pareidolia. 2 eyes and a nose

 The Rorscach Ink blot Test uses pareidolia in an attempt to gain insight into a persons mental state. It is a projective test, as it intentionally elicits the thoughts or feelings of the respondent, which are projected into the ambiguous inkblot images.

Projection in this instance is a form of directed pareidolia because the cards have been deliberately designed not to resemble anything in particular.  

This sentence led me to link the optical illusions with pareidolia and the inkblot tests because they trick you into seeing something that isn't there, something that shouldn't be made sense of, but is.