Auswahl der wissenschaftlichen Literatur zum Thema „Michotte, Albert“

Philosophers have long argued that causality cannot be directly observed but requires a conscious inference (Hume, 1967). Albert Michotte however developed numerous visual phenomena in which people seemed to perceive causality akin to primary visual properties like colour or motion (Michotte, 1946). Michotte claimed that the perception of causality did not require a conscious, deliberate inference but, working over 70 years ago, he did not have access to the experimental methods to test this claim. Here we employ Continuous Flash Suppression (CFS)—an interocular suppression technique to render stimuli invisible (Tsuchiya & Koch, 2005)—to test whether causal events enter awareness faster than non-causal events. We presented observers with ‘causal’ and ‘non-causal’ events, and found consistent evidence that participants become aware of causal events more rapidly than non-causal events. Our results suggest that, whilst causality must be inferred from sensory evidence, this inference might be computed at low levels of perceptual processing, and does not depend on a deliberative conscious evaluation of the stimulus. This work therefore supports Michotte’s contention that, like colour or motion, causality is an immediate property of our perception of the world.

One of the most important tasks for humans is the attribution of causes and effects in all wakes of life. The first systematical study of visual perception of causality—often referred to as phenomenal causality—was done by Albert Michotte using his now well-known launching events paradigm. Launching events are the seeming collision and seeming transfer of movement between two objects—abstract, featureless stimuli (“objects”) in Michotte’s original experiments. Here, we study the relation between causal ratings for launching events in Michotte’s setting and launching collisions in a photorealistically computer-rendered setting. We presented launching events with differing temporal gaps, the same launching processes with photorealistic billiard balls, as well as photorealistic billiard balls with realistic motion dynamics, that is, an initial rebound of the first ball after collision and a short sliding phase of the second ball due to momentum and friction. We found that providing the normal launching stimulus with realistic visuals led to lower causal ratings, but realistic visuals together with realistic motion dynamics evoked higher ratings. Two-dimensional versus three-dimensional presentation, on the other hand, did not affect phenomenal causality. We discuss our results in terms of intuitive physics as well as cue conflict.

J’explore de nouvelles façons d’étudier l’histoire et l’historicité de la perception, à travers un double portrait du psychologue francophone Albert Michotte, et de la collection de ses disques en papier. Leur interaction produit de nouvelles images expérimentales, éclaircissant les complexités de la perception. J’ai navigué différents archives, archives d'objets et collections d’instruments en Belgique, en France et en Allemagne. La découverte de nouvelles sources et mes ré-animations historiques m’ont permis de combiner l’histoire des sciences et l’étude des médias, touchant sur l’histoire de la philosophie et de la religion. Le portrait de Michotte dévoile une figure qui fait le pont entre différents paradigmes psychologiques, science et religion, filmologie et phénoménologie expérimentale, aussi bien qu’un diplomate des sciences traversant deux guerres, des politiques religieuses et des changements institutionnels. Etudier les paradoxes qu’il incarnait devient ainsi un outil d’historiographie. Le portrait des disques, contextualisé en termes de 'contextes d’action', montre comment ils sont liés à la pratique expérimentale, le cinéma, l’art et la culture matérielle du laboratoire. Ce double portrait montre comment Michotte et les disques créèrent ensemble des images en mouvement afin d’étudier les perceptions dynamiques, telle que la perception de la causalité. Le mouvement est essentiel à cette thèse, car il permet de comprendre comment de telles perceptions son générées et transportées. L’étude de ces perceptions permet de saisir comment la perception dépend d’un contexte, se forme à travers des inter-actions, et change – montrant son historicité
I explore new ways to study the history and historicity of perception, through a double portrait: of the francophone psychologist Albert Michotte, and of a set of well-preserved rotating paper discs. In their interaction, new experimental images were generated, shedding light on the intricacy of perception. I have searched different archives, object-archives and instrument collections in Belgium, France and Germany. Newly discovered sources, together with my historical re-animations, allowed me to combine history of science with media studies, in close interaction with the history of philosophy and religion.The portrait of Michotte shows a bridging-figure between different psychological paradigms, science and religion, filmology and experimental phenomenology, performing science diplomacy to navigate two wars, religious politics and institutional change. Studying the paradoxes he embodied is developed into a historiographical tool. The portrait of the discs, contextualised in terms of 'action contexts', shows how they related to experimental practice, cinema, art and the material culture of the laboratory. This dynamic double portrait shows how Michotte and the discs together create moving images for the study of dynamic perceptions, such as the perception of causality. Motion is central to this thesis, not only for explaining the dynamic perception of movements, but especially for understanding how such perceptions are generated and transported. Studying these 'movement-perceptions' makes it possible to grasp how perception is context dependent, how it is shaped through inter-actions, and how it changes – giving it a history

This chapter discusses what kinds of inductive biases people have and how general are they. It examines some inductive biases that are sufficiently pervasive and can be considered domain-general, such as causality in which people perceive events as contingent on other events, not merely correlated with them. For example, when a moving object touches a stationary object and the stationary object then begins to move, people perceive the moving object as causing the movement of the stationary object. The chapter mentions psychologist Albert Michotte, who showed that the impression of causality can be generated by very sparse visual information. Michotte's findings demonstrate that causality can be apprehended from extremely sparse information; the observers know virtually nothing about the structure of the environment in which these perceptual events are occurring.

Abstract Chapter 6 returns to the issue of lifelikeness and animation, to untangle a few strands in the varieties of human-thing entanglement discussed here in the light of recent research inspired by the Uncanny. Drawing on the research into perceptual attribution mechanisms by Albert Michotte, Fritz Heider, and Marianne Simmel, and Gabriela Airenti, this chapter develops an analysis of such emotional or even bodily investment in art and of such excessive varieties of human–thing entanglement, that lifts them out of the realm of art historical anecdote, and provides at least the rudiments for not only an artistic but also a psychological account of these emotional and physical investments in art.

The chapter ‘Acrobatics. On the wires of empathy’ takes as a starting point Edith Stein’s critique of psychologist Theodor Lipps’ notion of empathy (Einfühlung) and her original proposal for a phenomenology of intersubjectivity. Since this debate revolves around the example of an observer watching an acrobat walking on a wire in mid air, the chapter offers an analysis of acrobatic actions in contemporary cinema (such as in Zemeckis’ The Walk) and reflects on both disembodied and embodied accounts of empathy in film studies. Recovering the filmological meaning of this term (introduced into film studies by psychologist Albert Michotte) and developing a model of cinematic empathy along the lines of Stein’s theory, the chapter illuminates the importance of the unbalancing/rebalancing dynamic in creating the spectator’s proprioceptive experience of disequilibrium.