VISUAL CAPTURE: COMPENSATING WITH OTHER SENSES

Vision is our strongest sense---it hogs more neural real estate than any other sensory system does, filling almost one-third of the human brain. With such clout, it can override other senses under the right circumstances, a neural ability known as visual capture.

Visual capture is responsible for the fact that ventriloquists can fool us. We believe that speech is emanating from a dummy’s mouth, even when the human speaker is standing before us. The visual movement of the fake mouth captures our attention and links it to the spoken words. Magicians use visual capture to hide actions of their hands in plain sight. Moviegoers gesture toward an actor’s mouth on the screen when asked where the sound is coming from ---even when theater speakers are placed at the back or sides of the house.

Because we rely so heavily on sight, it’s natural to suppose horses do, too. But a horse’s acuity, depth perception and visual content identification is much worse than yours. He compensates for his visual weaknesses with excellent hearing and a fantastic sense of smell. We help horses by letting them rely on these stronger senses. The next time your horse skitters away from a safe spot, think about what he might hear or smell that is imperceptible to you. His world is not all about vision.

CATEGORICAL PERCEPTION: MAKING SENSE OF THE WORLD

Once past the eye and through the sieve of depth perception and visual capture, our brains interpret sights to identify what we see. Human brains