Vision is the most important and prioritized sense that we have. We are constantly looking at the world around us, and quickly we identify and make sense of what it is that we see.
Vid je najvažnije i naprioritetnije osjetilo kojega imamo. Mi stalno gledamo svijet oko sebe i brzo prepoznajemo i shvaćamo smisao onoga što vidimo.
Let's just start with an example of that very fact. I'm going to show you a photograph of a person, just for a second or two, and I'd like for you to identify what emotion is on his face. Ready? Here you go. Go with your gut reaction. Okay. What did you see? Well, we actually surveyed over 120 individuals, and the results were mixed. People did not agree on what emotion they saw on his face. Maybe you saw discomfort. That was the most frequent response that we received. But if you asked the person on your left, they might have said regret or skepticism, and if you asked somebody on your right, they might have said something entirely different, like hope or empathy. So we are all looking at the very same face again. We might see something entirely different, because perception is subjective. What we think we see is actually filtered through our own mind's eye.
Započnimo jednim primjerom upravo te činjenice. Pokazat ću vam fotografiju jedne osobe samo na sekundu ili dvije, a od vas ću tražiti da prepoznate koju emociju izražava njeno lice. Spremni? Evo ga. Recite prvo što vam padne na pamet. Dobro. Što vidite? Dakle, mi smo ustvari anketirali preko 120 ljudi i rezultati su mješoviti. Ljudi se ne slažu oko toga koju emociju izražava njegovo lice. Možda ste vi vidjeli nelagodu. To je bio najčešći odgovor koji smo dobili. No ako upitate osobu sebi s lijeva, ona će možda reći žaljenje ili skeptičnost, a ako upitate nekog s desna, on će možda reći nešto potpuno različito, kao nada ili empatija. Dakle, mi svi gledamo to isto lice ponovo. Možda možemo vidjeti nešto potpuno različito, zato jer je percepcija subjektivna. Ono što mislimo da vidimo ustvari se filtrira kroz oči našeg vlastitog uma.
Of course, there are many other examples of how we see the world through own mind's eye. I'm going to give you just a few. So dieters, for instance, see apples as larger than people who are not counting calories. Softball players see the ball as smaller if they've just come out of a slump, compared to people who had a hot night at the plate. And actually, our political beliefs also can affect the way we see other people, including politicians. So my research team and I decided to test this question. In 2008, Barack Obama was running for president for the very first time, and we surveyed hundreds of Americans one month before the election. What we found in this survey was that some people, some Americans, think photographs like these best reflect how Obama really looks. Of these people, 75 percent voted for Obama in the actual election. Other people, though, thought photographs like these best reflect how Obama really looks. 89 percent of these people voted for McCain. We presented many photographs of Obama one at a time, so people did not realize that what we were changing from one photograph to the next was whether we had artificially lightened or darkened his skin tone.
Naravno, ima mnogo drugih primjera za to kako vidimo svijet očima našeg uma. Ja ću vam dati samo nekoliko. Ljudi na dijeti, na primjer, vide jabuke veće nego ljudi koji ne broje kalorije. Igrači softballa vide loptu manjom nakon razdoblja loše igre, u usporedbi s ljudima koji su odigrali dobru igru. Zapravo i naši politički stavovi također mogu utjecati na to kako vidimo druge ljude, uključujući političare. Stoga smo, moj istraživački tim i ja odlučili provjeriti ovo pitanje. 2008. godine Barack Obama se kandidirao za predsjednika po prvi puta, i mi smo anketirali stotine amerikanaca mjesec dana prije izbora. Ono što smo ustanovili tom anketom bilo je da neki ljudi, neki amerikanci, misle da fotografije poput ovih najbolje odražavaju kako Obama uistinu izgleda. 75 posto tih ljudi glasalo je za Obamu na stvarnim izborima. Drugi ljudi, međutim, mislili su da fotografije poput ovih najbolje odražavaju kako Obama uistinu izgleda. 89 posto tih ljudi glasalo je za McCaina. Mi smo pokazivali mnogo Obaminih fotografija jednu po jednu, tako da ljudi nisu shvatili da je jedina razlika između pojedinih fotografija bila u nijansi boje njegove kože koju smo mi umjetno posvijetlili ili zatamnili.
So how is that possible? How could it be that when I look at a person, an object, or an event, I see something very different than somebody else does? Well, the reasons are many, but one reason requires that we understand a little bit more about how our eyes work. So vision scientists know that the amount of information that we can see at any given point in time, what we can focus on, is actually relatively small. What we can see with great sharpness and clarity and accuracy is the equivalent of the surface area of our thumb on our outstretched arm. Everything else around that is blurry, rendering much of what is presented to our eyes as ambiguous. But we have to clarify and make sense of what it is that we see, and it's our mind that helps us fill in that gap. As a result, perception is a subjective experience, and that's how we end up seeing through our own mind's eye.
Pa kako je to moguće? Kako to može biti da kada gledam neku osobu ili neki objekt, ili neki događaj, vidim nešto vrlo različito od nekog drugog? Dakle, ima mnogo razloga, a jedan razlog zahtijeva da razumijemo nešto malo više o tome kako funkcioniraju naše oči. Znanstvenici koji se bave vidom znaju da količina informacija koju možemo vidjeti u pojedinom trenutku, ono na što se možemo fokusirati, ustvari je relativno mala. Ono što možemo vidjeti s velikom oštrinom, jasnoćom i točnošću ekvivalentno je površini palca naše ispružene ruke. Sve okolo toga je nejasno, i mnogo od onoga što je pred našim očima ostaje neodređeno. No, mi moramo pojasniti i dati smisao onome što vidimo, i tu uskače naš um koji nam pomaže da popunimo tu prazninu. Rezultat toga je da je naša percepcija subjektivni doživljaj, i tako mi na kraju gledamo očima našeg uma.
So, I'm a social psychologist, and it's questions like these that really intrigue me. I am fascinated by those times when people do not see eye to eye. Why is it that somebody might literally see the glass as half full, and somebody literally sees it as half empty? What is it about what one person is thinking and feeling that leads them to see the world in an entirely different way? And does that even matter? So to begin to tackle these questions, my research team and I decided to delve deeply into an issue that has received international attention: our health and fitness. Across the world, people are struggling to manage their weight, and there is a variety of strategies that we have to help us keep the pounds off. For instance, we set the best of intentions to exercise after the holidays, but actually, the majority of Americans find that their New Year's resolutions are broken by Valentine's Day. We talk to ourselves in very encouraging ways, telling ourselves this is our year to get back into shape, but that is not enough to bring us back to our ideal weight. So why? Of course, there is no simple answer, but one reason, I argue, is that our mind's eye might work against us. Some people may literally see exercise as more difficult, and some people might literally see exercise as easier.
Dakle, ja sam socijalni psiholog, a pitanja poput ovoga su ta koja me stvarno intrigiraju. Mene fasciniraju trenuci kada ljudi ne vide nešto na isti način. Zašto neki mogu doslovno vidjeti čašu napola punu, a drugi je doslovno vide napola praznu? Što je to u razmišljanju i osjećanju neke osobe što je navodi da svijet vidi na potpuno drugačiji način? I je li to uopće važno? Dakle, da bismo odgovorili na ova pitanja, moj istraživački tim i ja, odlučili smo da se dublje pozabavimo jednim problemom kojemu se poklanja internacionalna pažnja: našim zdravljem i fitnessom. Diljem svijeta ljudi se bore da održe odgovarajuću težinu i postoji mnoštvo strategija koje nam pomažu u borbi protiv suvišnih kilograma. Na primjer, mi si zacrtamo najbolje namjere da ćemo vježbati nakon praznika, ali ustvari, većina Amerikanaca ustanovi da su svoje čvrste novogodišnje odluke prekršili do Valentinova. Potičemo se na razne načine govoreći si da je ovo naša godina za vraćanje u formu, ali to nije dovoljno da nas vrati na našu idealnu težinu. Pa zašto? Naravno, nema jednostavnog odgovora, ali jedan razlog, ja tvrdim, je da oči našeg uma možda rade protiv nas. Neki ljudi mogu doslovno vidjeti vježbe kao teže, a drugi ih možda mogu doslovno vidjeti kao lakše.
So, as a first step to testing these questions, we gathered objective measurements of individuals' physical fitness. We measured the circumference of their waist, compared to the circumference of their hips. A higher waist-to-hip ratio is an indicator of being less physically fit than a lower waist-to-hip ratio. After gathering these measurements, we told our participants that they would walk to a finish line while carrying extra weight in a sort of race. But before they did that, we asked them to estimate the distance to the finish line. We thought that the physical states of their body might change how they perceived the distance. So what did we find? Well, waist-to-hip ratio predicted perceptions of distance. People who were out of shape and unfit actually saw the distance to the finish line as significantly greater than people who were in better shape. People's states of their own body changed how they perceived the environment. But so too can our mind. In fact, our bodies and our minds work in tandem to change how we see the world around us.
Dakle, kao prvi korak u provjeri ovih pitanja prikupili smo objektivna mjerenja fizičke sposobnosti učesnika. Mjerili smo im obujam struka u odnosu na obujam bokova. Veći omjer struka i bokova indikator je slabije fizičke sposobnosti nego kad je omjer struka i bokova manji. Nakon prikupljanja tih mjerenja, rekli smo našim učesnicima da će hodati do linije cilja noseći dodatni teret u nekoj vrsti utrke. No prije nego što su krenuli, tražili smo ih da procijene udaljenost do cilja. Mislili smo da će možda njihovo fizičko tjelesno stanje utjecati na to kako uočavaju udaljenost. I što smo otkrili? Pa, omjer struka i bokova predodređivao je percepciju udaljenosti. Ljudi koji su bili izvan forme i fizički nepodobni stvarno su udaljenost do cilja vidjeli značajno većom nego ljudi koji su bili u boljoj formi. Tjelesno stanje ljudi utjecalo je na njihovu percepciju okoline. No, isto tako može i naš um. Ustvari, naše tijelo i naš um rade u tandemu mijenjajući naše viđenje svijeta oko sebe.
That led us to think that maybe people with strong motivations and strong goals to exercise might actually see the finish line as closer than people who have weaker motivations. So to test whether motivations affect our perceptual experiences in this way, we conducted a second study. Again, we gathered objective measurements of people's physical fitness, measuring the circumference of their waist and the circumference of their hips, and we had them do a few other tests of fitness. Based on feedback that we gave them, some of our participants told us they're not motivated to exercise any more. They felt like they already met their fitness goals and they weren't going to do anything else. These people were not motivated. Other people, though, based on our feedback, told us they were highly motivated to exercise. They had a strong goal to make it to the finish line. But again, before we had them walk to the finish line, we had them estimate the distance. How far away was the finish line? And again, like the previous study, we found that waist-to-hip ratio predicted perceptions of distance. Unfit individuals saw the distance as farther, saw the finish line as farther away, than people who were in better shape. Importantly, though, this only happened for people who were not motivated to exercise. On the other hand, people who were highly motivated to exercise saw the distance as short. Even the most out of shape individuals saw the finish line as just as close, if not slightly closer, than people who were in better shape.
To nas je navelo da pomislimo da možda ljudi sa čvrstim motivacijama i čvrstim ciljevima za vježbanje možda uistinu mogu vidjeti cilj kao bliži nego ljudi koji imaju slabije motivacije. Dakle, da bismo ispitali da li motivacije utječu na naše percepijske doživljaje na ovaj način proveli smo drugo istraživanje. Opet smo prikupili objektivna mjerenja fizičke sposobnosti učesnika, mjereći obujam struka i obujam bokova i dali smo im da obave još neke testove fizičke sposobnosti. Na temelju povratnih informacija koje smo im dali neki učesnici su nam rekli da nisu motivirani za daljnje vježbanje. Činilo im se da su već ostvarili svoje ciljeve u vezi kondicije i nisu željeli ništa više raditi. Ti ljudi nisu bili motivirani. Drugi ljudi, međutim, na temelju naših povratnih informacija rekli su nam da su visoko motivirani za vježbanje. Imali su čvrstu namjeru da stignu do cilja. No ponovo, prije nego što su krenuli tražili smo da procijene udaljenost. Koliko je bila udaljena linija cilja? I opet, kao i u prethodnom istraživanju, ustanovili smo da omjer struka i bokova predodređuje percepciju udaljenosti. Manje fizički sposobni vidjeli su udaljenost kao veću, cilj su vidjeli dalje, nego ljudi koji su bili u boljoj formi. Važno je međutim, da se to dogodilo samo kod ljudi koji nisu bili motivirani za vježbanje. S druge strane, ljudi koji su bili visoko motivirani za vježbanje vidjeli su udaljenost kao kraću. Čak i osobe u najslabijoj formi vidjele su liniju cilja isto tako blizu, ako ne i malo bliže, od ljudi koji su bili u boljoj formi. Dakle naše tijelo može mijenjati
So our bodies can change how far away that finish line looks, but people who had committed to a manageable goal that they could accomplish in the near future and who believed that they were capable of meeting that goal actually saw the exercise as easier. That led us to wonder, is there a strategy that we could use and teach people that would help change their perceptions of the distance, help them make exercise look easier?
kako daleko izgleda linija cilja, ali ljudi koji su si postavili dostižan cilj koji bi mogli ostvariti u skoroj budućnosti i koji su vjerovali da su sposobni ostvariti taj cilj, uistinu su vježbu vidjeli kao lakšu. To nas je navelo da se upitamo, postoji li strategija koju bismo mogli koristiti i naučiti ljude, a koja bi pomogla da promijene svoju percepciju udaljenosti, pomogla da vježba izgleda lakša? Tako smo se okrenuli znanstvenoj literaturi o vidu
So we turned to the vision science literature to figure out what should we do, and based on what we read, we came up with a strategy that we called, "Keep your eyes on the prize." So this is not the slogan from an inspirational poster. It's an actual directive for how to look around your environment. People that we trained in this strategy, we told them to focus their attention on the finish line, to avoid looking around, to imagine a spotlight was shining on that goal, and that everything around it was blurry and perhaps difficult to see. We thought that this strategy would help make the exercise look easier. We compared this group to a baseline group. To this group we said, just look around the environment as you naturally would. You will notice the finish line, but you might also notice the garbage can off to the right, or the people and the lamp post off to the left. We thought that people who used this strategy would see the distance as farther.
kako bismo shvatili što nam je činiti, i na temelju onoga što smo pročitali, osmislili smo strategiju koju smo nazvali "Ne skidaj oči s nagrade" Dakle to nije slogan s nekog inspirativnog postera. To je realna direktiva kako gledati na svoje okruženje. Ljudima koje smo uvježbali u ovoj strategiji rekli smo da svoju pažnju usmjere na cilj, da izbjegavaju gledati naokolo, da zamisle da reflektor osvjetljava taj cilj i da je sve oko njega mutno i vjerojatno teško za vidjeti. Mislili smo da će ova strategija pomoći da vježba izgleda lakša. Usporedili smo ovu grupu s polaznom grupom. Toj grupi smo rekli, slobodno gledajte naokolo kako bi to prirodno radili. Primijetit ćete cilj, ali možda ćete također primijetiti koš za otpatke s desna, ili ljude i uličnu svjetiljku s lijeva. Mislili smo da će ljudi koji su koristili ovu strategiju udaljenost vidjeti kao veću.
So what did we find? When we had them estimate the distance, was this strategy successful for changing their perceptual experience? Yes. People who kept their eyes on the prize saw the finish line as 30 percent closer than people who looked around as they naturally would. We thought this was great. We were really excited because it meant that this strategy helped make the exercise look easier, but the big question was, could this help make exercise actually better? Could it improve the quality of exercise as well?
Pa što smo otkrili? Kada smo ih tražili da procijene udaljenost, je li ta strategija bila uspješna u mijenjanju njihovog perceptivnog doživljaja? Da. Ljudi koji nisu skidali oči s nagrade vidjeli su liniju cilja 30 posto bliže nego ljudi koji su prirodno gledali naokolo. Mislili smo da je to odlično. Stvarno smo bili uzbuđeni jer je to značilo da je ova strategija pomogla da vježba izgleda lakša, no veliko je pitanje bilo, može li to pomoći da vježba uistinu bude bolja? Može li to poboljšati i kvalitetu vježbe?
So next, we told our participants, you are going to walk to the finish line while wearing extra weight. We added weights to their ankles that amounted to 15 percent of their body weight. We told them to lift their knees up high and walk to the finish line quickly. We designed this exercise in particular to be moderately challenging but not impossible, like most exercises that actually improve our fitness.
Sljedeće, rekli smo našim učesnicima, sada ćete hodati do cilja noseći dodatni teret. Na gležnjeve smo im stavili utege od 15 posto njihove tjelesne težine. Rekli smo im da visoko podižu koljena i brzo hodaju do cilja. Ovu smo vježbu posebno osmislili da bude umjereno zahtjevna, ali ne nemoguća, kao što je većina vježbi koje stvarno popravljaju našu kondiciju.
So the big question, then: Did keeping your eyes on the prize and narrowly focusing on the finish line change their experience of the exercise? It did. People who kept their eyes on the prize told us afterward that it required 17 percent less exertion for them to do this exercise than people who looked around naturally. It changed their subjective experience of the exercise. It also changed the objective nature of their exercise. People who kept their eyes on the prize actually moved 23 percent faster than people who looked around naturally. To put that in perspective, a 23 percent increase is like trading in your 1980 Chevy Citation for a 1980 Chevrolet Corvette.
Dakle veliko pitanje: Je li ne skidanje očiju s nagrade i pažljivo fokusiranje na cilj promijenilo njihov doživljaj vježbe? Jest. Ljudi koji nisu skidali oči s nagrade rekli su nam poslije da im je trebalo 17 posto manje napora da bi izveli vježbu nego ljudima koji su prirodno gledali naokolo. To je promijenilo njihov subjektivni doživljaj vježbe. To je također promijenilo objektivnu prirodu njihove vježbe Ljudi koji nisu skidali oči s nagrade uistinu su se kretali 23 posto brže od ljudi koji su prirodno gledali naokolo. Gledano iz druge perspektive, povećanje od 23 posto to je kao da mijenjate svoj Chevy Citation iz 1980. za Chevrolet Corvette iz 1980.
We were so excited by this, because this meant that a strategy that costs nothing, that is easy for people to use, regardless of whether they're in shape or struggling to get there, had a big effect. Keeping your eyes on the prize made the exercise look and feel easier even when people were working harder because they were moving faster. Now, I know there's more to good health than walking a little bit faster, but keeping your eyes on the prize might be one additional strategy that you can use to help promote a healthy lifestyle.
Bili smo zaista uzbuđeni zbog ovoga jer je to značilo da ova strategija koja ne košta ništa, koju je ljudima lako koristiti, bez obzira da li su u formi ili se bore da do nje dođu, ima veliki učinak. Ne skidanje očiju s nagrade učinilo je da vježba izgleda i bude lakša čak i kada su se ljudi više trudili zbog toga jer su se brže kretali. E sad, ja znam da za dobro zdravlje treba više od malo bržeg hodanja, ali ne skidanje očiju s nagrade bi možda mogla biti dodatna strategija koju možete koristiti kao pomoć u promicanju zdravog stila života. Ako još uvijek niste uvjereni
If you're not convinced yet that we all see the world through our own mind's eye, let me leave you with one final example. Here's a photograph of a beautiful street in Stockholm, with two cars. The car in the back looks much larger than the car in the front. However, in reality, these cars are the same size, but that's not how we see it. So does this mean that our eyes have gone haywire and that our brains are a mess? No, it doesn't mean that at all. It's just how our eyes work. We might see the world in a different way, and sometimes that might not line up with reality, but it doesn't mean that one of us is right and one of us is wrong. We all see the world through our mind's eye, but we can teach ourselves to see it differently.
da svi mi vidimo svijet očima svog vlastitog uma, dozvolite mi prije kraja jedan konačan primjer. Ovdje je fotografija jedne prekrasne ulice u Stockholmu, sa dva auta. Auto u pozadini izgleda puno veći od auta sprijeda. Međutim, u stvarnosti, ti auti su iste veličine, ali to nije kako ih mi vidimo. Pa znači li to da su naše oči zakazale ili da je naš mozak u neredu? Ne, to uopće ne znači to. To je samo način kako funkcioniraju naše oči. Svijet možemo vidjeti na drugačiji način i ponekad to možda nije u skladu sa stvarnošću, ali to ne znači da je jedan od nas u pravu, a drugi u krivu. Svi mi vidimo svijet kroz oči našeg uma,
So I can think of days that have gone horribly wrong for me. I'm fed up, I'm grumpy, I'm tired, and I'm so behind, and there's a big black cloud hanging over my head, and on days like these, it looks like everyone around me is down in the dumps too. My colleague at work looks annoyed when I ask for an extension on a deadline, and my friend looks frustrated when I show up late for lunch because a meeting ran long, and at the end of the day, my husband looks disappointed because I'd rather go to bed than go to the movies. And on days like these, when everybody looks upset and angry to me, I try to remind myself that there are other ways of seeing them. Perhaps my colleague was confused, perhaps my friend was concerned, and perhaps my husband was feeling empathy instead. So we all see the world through our own mind's eye, and on some days, it might look like the world is a dangerous and challenging and insurmountable place, but it doesn't have to look that way all the time. We can teach ourselves to see it differently, and when we find a way to make the world look nicer and easier, it might actually become so.
ali možemo se naučiti da ga gledamo drugačije. Tako se mogu prisjetiti dana kada mi je sve išlo užasno naopako. Svega mi je dosta, mrzovoljna sam, umorna sam, i toliko u zaostatku, i veliki crni oblak visi iznad moje glave, i u takvim danima izgleda kao da su i svi oko mene isto u depresiji. Moj kolega na poslu izgleda zlovoljan kad ga zamolim za produženje roka, a moja prijateljica izgleda frustrirana kada zakasnim na ručak zato jer se sastanak oduljio, i na kraju dana moj muž izgleda razočaran jer bih ja radije išla u krevet nego u kino. I u takvim danima kada mi svi izgledaju uzrujani i ljuti, ja se pokušavam podsjetiti da ima i drugih načina da ih vidim. Vjerojatno je moj kolega bio zbunjen, vjerojatno je moja prijateljica bila zabrinuta, a vjerojatno je moj muž osjećao empatiju umjesto toga. Dakle svi mi vidimo svijet kroz oči našeg vlastitog uma, i nekih dana možda može izgledati kao da je svijet opasno i izazovno i nesavladivo mjesto, no to ne mora tako izgledati stalno. Mi možemo sami sebe naučiti da ga vidimo drugačije i kada nađemo način da nam svijet izgleda ljepši i lakši, tada uistinu možda može i postati takav.
Thank you.
Hvala.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)