COGNITIVE ILLUSION

cognitive illusion: translation

   Also known as strategy illusion and perceptual illusion. The term cognitive illusion is indebted to the Latin noun cognoscere, which means to learn or to scrutinize. It refers to an * illusion arising as a consequence of unconscious inferences about the nature of the physical world, rather than from physical or neurophysiological mechanisms. Some examples of cognitive illusions are * geometric-optical illusions such as the impossible figures in the artwork of the Dutch graphic artist Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972), and the * Necker cube. The neu-ropsychological substrate ofcognitive illusions is in the realm of higher-order cognitive processes such as * apophenia (i.e. an excess of perceptual or heuristic sensitivity leading to the discernment of patterns or connections in random or meaningless data). The term cognitive illusion is used in opposition to the terms *physical illusion and * physiological illusion.

   References

   Gregory, R.L. (1991). Putting illusions in their place. Perception, 20, 1-4.

   Ninio, J. (2001). The science of illusions.Trans-lated by Philip, F. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.