What is pareidolia?
Pareidolia is a psychological phenomenon that causes people to see patterns or images in random visual stimuli.
Pareidolia is our natural instinct that enables observing familiar objects and smells in unfamiliar places. Pareidolia is actively used in childhood for observing cloud formations suggesting faces or shapes. Once activated, alternatives can be found in nature while hiking on rocks, on the bark of trees, and even in mud piles. Cityscapes are filled with pareidolia observations, link in the façade of buildings, car parts, and water hydrants. Becoming aware of pareidolia also includes hearing distinct sounds like voices or music from ambiguous auditory stimuli — such as air conditioners or flowing water.
Neuroscience research on pareidolia has employed two different paradigms, both focused on face pareidolia to address the question of where and when in the brain neural processes associated with pareidolic perception unfold. In the 'face-in-thing' paradigm, images of real-world objects that look uncannily like faces are used. This paradigm is useful for probing automatic, bottom-up neural processes. In the 'face-in-noise' paradigm, artificial images of visual noise in which it is possible to find face-like patterns are used, and is useful for probing more volitional, top-down neural processes.
At Johns Hopkins Medicine, the introduction of pareidolia brought attention to multiple therapeutic applications with researcher specialists conducting multi-year explorations. School lesson designer integrated the responses to pareidolia into varying educational applications. And nature centers introducing new experiences when hiking that was shared intergenerationaly.
Promising applications of pareidolia
The research community came to embrace the potential benefits associated with pareidolia and now embrace it's beneficial impact in hopes it will pave the way for new approaches to cognitive therapies, educational methodologies, and a broader appreciation of human perception and creativity.
Pareidolia was introduced at:
- American Visionary Art Museum - Introduced pareidolia to the public for three years using Pat Bernstein's photographs.
- Baltimore Lab School - Developed 5 different lesson plans incorporating the enhanced approach to varying subjects integrating pareidolia's approach to alternative thoughts.
- Hopkins School of Public Health - Had facilitators introduce pareidolia as a mechanism enabling open discussion among group with divisive approaches.
- Hopkins Medical Institution Grants1 - Pat Bernstein introduced grants supporting research using pareidolia:
- Johns Hopkins School of Medicine - Is analyzing the neurological impact of pareidolia responses on the brain of primates.
- Johns Hopkins International Mind & Brain Lab - Conducted worldwide research on medical uses of pareidolia.
- Johns Hopkins Division of Public Health and Rehabilitation - Is developing therapeutic program for hospitalized patients.
1 Johns Hopkins Medical Institution was the first to launch multi-year medical studies examining new applications using pareidolia.