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 prioritetno čulo koje imamo. Stalno posmatramo svet oko nas, i brzo identifikujemo i nalazimo smisao u onome 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.
Hajde da započnemo primerom same te činjenice. Pokazaću vam fotografiju osobe, samo na sekundu ili dve, i želela bih da identifikujete emociju na njegovom licu. Spremni? Evo ga. Pratite svoj instinkt. Okej. Šta ste videli? Pa, zapravo smo anketirali preko 120 osoba, i rezultati su bili pomešani. Ljudi se nisu slagali oko emocije koju su videli na njegovom licu. Možda ste videli nelagodnost. To je bio najćešći odgovor koji smo dobijali. Ali ako biste upitali osobu sa vaše leve strane, možda bi rekli kajanje ili skepticizam, a ako biste upitali osobu sa vaše desne strane, možda bi rekli nešto potpuno različito, kao što je nada ili empatija. Svi ponovo gledamo isto lice. Možda ćemo videti nešto potpuno drugačije, jer je opažanje subjektivno. Ono što mislimo da vidimo je zapravo filtrirano kroz oči našeg uma. Naravno, ima mnogo drugih primera
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.
kako vidimo svet kroz oči našeg uma. Izneću vam samo nekoliko. Oni koji drže dijetu, na primer, vide jabuke kao veće nego ljudi koji ne broje kalorije. Igrači softbola vide loptu kao manju ako su upravo izašli iz krize, u poređenju sa ljudima koji su imali dobar period. I zapravo, naša politička uverenja takođe mogu uticati na način na koji vidimo druge ljude, uključujući političare. Moj istraživački tim i ja smo rešili da ispitamo ovaj problem. 2008. godine, Barak Obama je bio kandidat za predsednika po prvi put, i anketirali smo stotine Amerikanaca mesec dana pre izbora. Ono što smo otkrili u ovom istraživanju jeste da neki ljudi, neki Amerikanci, smatraju da fotografije poput ovih najbolje prikazuju kako Obama u stvari izgleda. Od tih ljudi, 75 procenata je glasalo za Obamu na dan izbora. Drugi ljudi su, pak, smatrali da ovakve fotografije najbolje prikazuju kako Obama izgleda. 89 procenata ovih ljudi glasalo je za Mekejna. Prikazali smo mnogo fotografija Obame jednu po jednu, tako da ljudi nisu shvatili da je ono što smo menjali od jedne do druge fotografije bilo da smo veštački posvetleli ili potamneli boju njegove kože.
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.
Kako je to moguće? Kako može biti da kada pogledam osobu, predmet, ili događaj, vidim nešto veoma različito nego što to neko drugi vidi? Pa, razloga je mnogo, ali jedan razlog zahteva da razumemo malo više o tome kako naše oči funkcionišu. Naučnici znaju da količina informacija koju možemo videti u bilo kom datom trenutku, na šta se možemo fokusirati, je zapravo relativno mala. Ono što možemo videti sa velikom oštrinom i jasnoćom i preciznošću je ekvivalentno površini našeg palca na našoj ispruženoj ruci. Sve izvan toga je mutno, iznoseći većinu onoga što se prikazuje pred našim očima kao dvosmisleno. Ali moramo da razjasnimo i nađemo smisao u onom što vidimo i naš um nam pomaže da popunimo tu prazninu. Kao rezultat, opažanje je subjektivno iskustvo, i zato na kraju vidimo kroz oči 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.
Ja sam socijalni psiholog, i pitanja poput ovih me stvarno intrigiraju. Fascinirana sam onim trenucima kada se ljudi ne slažu. Zašto bi neko mogao bukvalno videti čašu kao napola punu, a neko je bukvalno vidi kao napola praznu? Šta je to u vezi s onim što osoba misli i oseća što vodi tome da vidi svet na potpuno drugačiji način? I da li je to uopšte bitno? Da bismo počeli da se bavimo ovim pitanjima, moj istraživački tim i ja smo rešili da dublje zaronimo u problem koji je zadobio međunarodnu pažnju: naše zdravlje i fizička spremnost. Širom sveta, ljudi se bore da upravljaju svojom težinom, i postoji mnoštvo strategija koje imamo da nam pomognu u skidanju kilograma. Na primer, odredili smo sa najboljim namerama da vežbamo nakon praznika, ali zapravo, većina Amerikanaca otkrije da njihove novogodišnje odluke budu srušene do Dana zaljubljenih. Obraćamo se sebi na vrlo ohrabrujuće načine, govoreći da je ovo naša godina kada ćemo se vratiti u formu, ali to nije dovoljno da nas vrati na našu idealnu težinu. Zašto? Naravno, nema jednostavnog odgovora, ali jedan od razloga, po meni, je taj da oči našeg uma možda rade protiv nas. Neki ljudi mogu bukvalno videti vežbanje kao teže, a neki ljudi mogu bukvalno videti vežbanje 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 testiranju ovih pitanja, prikupili smo objektivne mere fizičkog stanja pojedinaca. Izmerili smo obim njihovog struka, u poređenju sa obimom kukova. Veći odnos struka i kukova je pokazatelj lošije forme nego niži odnos struka i kukova. Nakon prikupljanja ovih mera, rekli smo našim učesnicima da će hodati ka liniji cilja noseći dodatnu težinu u nekoj vrsti trke. Ali pre nego što to urade, zatražili smo od njih da procene udaljenost do linije cilja. Mislili smo da bi fizičko stanje njihovog tela moglo izmeniti način na koji opažaju udaljenost. I šta smo otkrili? Pa, odnos struka i kukova je predvideo opažanje udaljenosti. Ljudi koji su bili van forme zaista su videli daljinu do linije cilja kao značajno veću nego ljudi koji su bili u boljoj formi. Stanje tela ljudi menja kako oni opažaju sredinu. Ali to takođe može i naš um. U stvari, naša tela i umovi rade u tandemu da bi izmenili kako vidimo svet oko nas.
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 bi možda ljudi sa jakom motivacijom i jakim ciljevima da vežbaju mogli zapravo videti liniju cilja kao bližu nego ljudi koji imaju slabiju motivaciju. Zato da bismo proverili da li motivacija utiče na naša opažajna iskustva na ovaj način, sproveli smo drugo istraživanje. Ponovo smo prikupili objektivne mere fizičke spreme ljudi, izmerivši njihov obim struka i obim kukova, i dali smo im da obave nekoliko drugih testova fizičke spreme. Na osnovu povratnih informacija koje smo im davali, neki od učesnika su nam rekli da nisu više motivisani da vežbaju. Osećali su da su već ostvarili svoje ciljeve vezane za fizičko zdravlje i da neće više ništa učiniti. Ovi ljudi nisu bili motivisani. Drugi ljudi, pak, na osnovu povratnih informacija, rekli su nam da su visoko motivisani da vežbaju. Imali su snažan cilj da stignu do linije cilja. Ali opet, pre nego što smo ih poslali da šetaju do linije cilja, tražili smo da procene udaljenost. Koliko daleko je bila linija cilja? I ponovo, kao u prethodnoj studiji, pronašli smo da je odnos struka i kukova predvideo opažanje udaljenosti. Osobe van forme su videle udaljenost kao veću, videli su liniju cilja kao udaljeniju, nego ljudi koji su bili u boljoj formi. Doduše, bitno je da se ovo desilo samo kod ljudi koji nisu bili motivisani da vežbaju. Sa druge strane, ljudi koji su bili visoko motivisani da vežbaju videli su udaljenost kao kratku. Čak i osobe koje su najviše bile van forme videle su liniju cilja jednako bliskom, ako ne malčice bližom, nego ljudi koji su bili u boljoj formi.
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?
Naša tela mogu da promene koliko daleko izgleda ta linija cilja, ali ljudi koji su se posvetili izvodljivom cilju koji mogu ostvariti u bliskoj budućnosti i koji su verovali da su sposobni da postignu taj cilj zapravo su videli vežbanje kao lakše. To nas je navelo da se zapitamo, postoji li strategija koju možemo koristiti i učiti ljude njome kako bismo pomogli da izmenimo njihovo opažanje daljine, pomoći im da vežbanje izgleda lakše?
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.
Okrenuli smo se literaturi nauke o vidu da bismo otkrili šta da radimo, i na osnovu onoga što smo pročitali, osmislili smo strategiju koju smo nazvali "imaj nagradu u vidu". Ovo nije slogan sa postera koji za cilj ima da nekog inspiriše. To je stvarna preporuka kako da posmatrate svoju okolinu. Ljudima koje smo naučili ovom strategijom, rekli smo da usmere svoju pažnju na liniju cilja, da izbegavaju razgledanje unaokolo, da zamisle da reflektor obasjava taj cilj, i da je sve oko njega mutno i možda teško da se vidi. Smatrali smo da bi ova strategija mogla pomoći da vežbanje izgleda lakše. Uporedili smo ovu grupu sa polaznom grupom. Toj grupi smo rekli: samo razgledajte okolinu kao što biste inače radili. Primetićete liniju cilja, ali mogli biste takođe primetiti kantu za đubre sa desne strane, ili ljude i banderu na levoj strani. Smatrali smo da će ljudi koji koriste ovu strategiju videti udaljenost 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?
I šta smo otkrili? Kada smo im zatražili da procene daljinu, da li je ova strategija bila uspešna u menjanju njihovog iskustvenog doživljaja? Da. Ljudi koji su imali nagradu u vidu videli su liniju cilja kao 30 odsto bližu nego ljudi koji su gledali unaokolo kao što bi i inače radili. Pomislili smo da je ovo sjajno. Bili smo zaista uzbuđeni jer je to značilo da je ova strategija pomogla da vežbanje izgleda lakše, ali veliko pitanje je bilo: da li bi ta pomoć mogla da vežbanje učini zaista boljim? Da li bi takođe mogla poboljšati i kvalitet vežbanja? Sledeće, rekli smo našim učesnicima:
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.
hodaćete ka liniji cilja noseći dodatnu težinu. Dodali smo tegove na njihove članke koji su iznosili do 15 odsto njihove telesne težine, Rekli smo im da visoko podižu kolena i brzo hodaju ka liniji cilja. Posebno smo osmislili ovu vežbu da bude umereno teška ali ne nemoguća, kao većina vežbi koje zaista poboljšavaju našu fizičku spremu. Dakle, veliko pitanje:
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.
da li je imati u vidu nagradu i usko fokusiranje na liniju cilja izmenilo iskustvo vežbanja? Jeste. Ljudi koji su imali nagradu u vidu rekli su nam da im je bilo potrebno 17 posto manje napora da urade ovu vežbu nego ljudi koji su prirodno gledali unaokolo. To je promenilo njihovo subjektivno iskustvo vežbanja. Takođe je izmenilo objektivnu prirodu njihovog vežbanja. Ljudi koji su imali nagradu u vidu zaista su se kretali 23 odsto brže nego ljudi koji su prirodno razgledali unaokolo. Poređenja radi, porast od 23 odsto je kao da zamenite vaš Ševi Sajtejšn iz 1980. za Ševrolet Korvetu iz 1980. godine. Toliko smo bili uzbuđeni zbog ovoga,
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.
jer je ovo značilo da je strategija koja ne košta ništa, koja je laka za korišćenje, bez obzira da li su u formi ili se bore da to postignu, imala veliki efekat. Imati nagradu u vidu je činilo da vežba izgleda i deluje lakše čak i kada su ljudi radili napornije jer su se kretali brže. Sad, znam da je dobro zdravlje više od malo bržeg hodanja, ali imati nagradu u vidu bi mogla biti dodatna strategija koju možete koristiti da biste pomogli u podsticanju zdravog stila života.
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.
Ako još uvek niste uvereni da svi mi vidimo svet kroz oči našeg uma, daću vam još jedan poslednji primer. Evo fotografije prelepe ulice u Stokholmu, sa dva auta. Auto pozadi deluje mnogo veće nego auto koji je ispred. Međutim, u stvarnosti, ovi automobili su iste veličine, ali ih mi ne vidimo tako. Da li ovo znači da naše oči prave zbrku i da je naš mozak u haosu? Ne, to nipošto ne znači to. Tako jednostavno naše oči funkcionišu. Možemo videti svet na drugačiji način, i ponekad to ne mora biti u skladu sa stvarnošću, ali to ne znači da je neko među nama u pravu, a da neko greši. Svi mi vidimo svet kroz oči našeg uma, ali možemo se naučiti da ga vidimo drugačije.
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.
Mogu se prisetiti dana koji su bili užasno loši po mene. Muka mi je od svega, mrzovoljna sam, umorna, i toliko sam loše volje, i veliki crni oblak mi visi nad glavom, i takvim danima, izgleda da su svi oko mene takođe nesrećni. Moj kolega na poslu deluje iznervirano kada mu zatražim produžavanje roka, i moj prijatelj deluje frustrirano kada zakasnim na ručak jer se sastanak odužio, i na kraju dana, moj muž deluje razočarano jer bih radije u krevet nego u bioskop. I tim danima, kada mi svi izgledaju uznemireno i ljuto, pokušavam da se podsetim da postoje drugi načini njihovog sagledavanja. Možda je moj kolega bio zbunjen, možda je moj prijatelj bio zabrinut, i možda je moj muž u stvari saosećao sa mnom. Dakle svi mi vidimo svet kroz oči našeg uma, i nekim danima, može izgledati da je svet opasno mesto prepuno izazova i nepremostivih prepreka, ali ne mora stalno da izgleda tako. Možemo se naučiti da ga vidimo drugačije, i kada nađemo način da učinimo da svet izgleda lepše i lakše, mogao bi zaista takav i postati.
Thank you.
Hvala vam.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)