qinon001: October 2011 Archives

Do you know more than one language? Around the world there are many people
that know more than one language. They travel and go abroad to study so
they can practice these different languages. Those people are bilingual.
That means that you are able to speak, understand and comprehend two
languages. It's clear that you will dominate your primary language more
than the other, but the fact of knowing two languages is awesome. Your
primary language is the one that you have learned first, almost always in
your home with your parents. The second language is the one that you learn
for example in your school or also in your home. It depends if your parents
are bilingual or not.

I consider myself as bilingual. My primary language is Spanish and my
second language is English. Currently, I'm an exchange student at the
University of Minnesota. It has been an experience of enrichment because it
has helped me to dominate my English language. I think that being bilingual
is an advantage because it is a tool for communication, knowledge, and a
connection with others. Also, it keeps the brain exercising and allows you
to explore new horizons through language.

The video below show you the diversity of languages around the world. Also,
it is clear that bilingualism is a passport to the world. Don't you think
knowing more than one language and understand people from other parts of
the world are awesome and interesting?

What do you see? Maybe you see a rat or a face with glasses. Do you see both? It's incredible how our knowledge influence our perception as to how we see things. In Psychology class this is called top-down processing. This happens when we process something influenced by previous information and beliefs. We perceive things depending on our expectation, beliefs and views. Our brain surprises us many times. How you interpret things depends on the angle you see things or maybe what comes to your mind right away. After you discover what is in the picture, in this case; the rat and the face with glasses, you will feel amazed how two things can be in one.

Sometimes we tend to form a perceptual set, an example of top- down processing. A perceptual set is the expectation of someone to perceive something based on previous experience. Its kind of tricky but fun at the same time. Your brain is teased and it began to look to past experiences.

Another process we use perception besides perceptual set is the perceptual constancy. It is when we perceive an object or qualities under varied conditions. There are many conditions like color, size and shape. For example, when we perceive other color because of the shadow we tend to see other type of color like in the figure below.

Now, I want test your brain...What do you see?

If you see two faces you are ok, but you should also notice a wine glass in the middle of the two faces.