Values, culture and aesthetics in visual percepiton
Humans cannot make objective perceptions due to unconscious biases.
Give an objective identification of what is in the three pictures. Answer one picture at a time, by saying the answer aloud or to yourself.
The images are not digital tricks or manipulations. They were picked because of their straightforward, familiar subjects. I am just looking for quick objective identifications.
One or more of your answers likely was on the order of 'George Washington crossing the Delaware,' 'an owl' and/or 'a watch.'
These answers are not objective, being formed in part by value judgments, aesthetic views, and other personal biases.
In the lower-left picture, there is much more than an owl. There are snow, trees, and leaves. The ‘owl’ answer subjectively singles out one thing. Part of this is due to a personal and cultural value judgment that an owl is more important than the other objects. Another reason is that the owl is pictured large, clear, and centered. If the picture showed a tree close up and in focus and a small out-of-focus owl flying in the distant background, your answer likely would have differed. Changes in arrangement, size and focus affect the viewer’s labeling, even when identical objects are pictured.
Similarly, if your answer to the lower right picture was ‘a watch,’ you made an aesthetic and value judgment about what is and is not important. Placement and focus affected your judgment, along with your feeling that a potentially expensive watch is the center of attention.
In the top image, there are quite a few people pictured. If you answered “George Washington crossing the Delaware” you singled out one as being the identity. This is in part due to a higher value placed on George Washington, a famous figure in United States history. This is also due to your knowledge, as Washington is likely the only person you know by name. Again, it is common to focus on the known and ignore the unknown.
If you said "This pictures a bunch of people, one whose name is George Washington" you would have given a broader answer, while acknowledging the extent of your knowledge.
Also, notice that your answer was not 'sky, water and ice,' even though sky, water, and ice takes up more space than the men, boat, and flag. This was due to your bias that the human is the natural center of attention.
The initial request of this post was to give objective identifications, but your answers were subjective. I didn't ask for your moral judgment of George Washington versus other men, whether an owl is more significant than out-of-focus background snow, or the relative financial value of a watch.
These and other types of subjective judgments are both natural and essential to humans.
Quick interpretations of scenes, including judging what is and is not important, is essential to getting through our day-to-day lives. You would not have lasted long on this earth if you placed equal visual significance on a twig on the pavement and a car speeding in your path. If someone unexpectedly tosses you a ball, you catch the ball by focusing on it. If you focus on the thrower’s shoes or what’s on TV, you will probably drop the ball.
The problem is that, while essential, this type of subjective identification helps make it impossible to make objective identification. One’s identification is always shaped by one’s knowledge level, experience, aesthetic view, pattern biases, and value judgments. As shown by the identification of the three pictures, the human is often not aware of this influence. To many people, biases are what others have.