URSI 403--Doing Urban Research -- Lecture Notes 1

O. Researchable Questions

• What is "fact"? What is "truth"? Is there a difference?
• Can every question be answered empirically?

A. What You See Is Not Necessarily What You Get

1. Ambiguity by design
   • Examples: Reversible cubes, Luscher color chart
   • Why does perception change? Can you entertain both perceptions simultaneously?
2. Ambiguity by indirection
   • Examples: Ambiguous drawings, ambiguous situations (TAT), ambiguous stimuli--and projection (Rohrschach)
   • Why do you see what you see? How else could it be seen by another?
3. Viewpoint
   • Examples: Broken square, "set," split house
   • Why do you "complete the figure"?

B. What You Get Is Not Necessarily What Is Seen

1. Examples: connect the dots, choke chain, nail balancing
2. How do you learn to think outside the lines? (or, how did you come to learn not to?)

C. Creating the "Truth"

1. Example: Rashomon
2. Who did what to whom? What is
   • known true
   • known false
   • unclear
   • need to know

MSU