The Perception Of Contraries

“Opposites” are intuitively and naturally understood and learnt. The extremely robust relationship between two opposites is a fundamental part of the mental lexicon in human cognitive organization. The reason for this special status has not yet been fully understood. In recent times there has been a shift of attention in psycholinguistic literature and researchers are now looking beyond old classifications towards new questions and new methods of studying this issue. This book proposes a further shift of perspective from language to the psychology of perception. Could it be that the special status of what has up to now been considered a linguistic or semantic relationship derives from the fact that contraries are grounded in deeper perceptual structures and motor processes? This book looks for evidence to prove this hypothesis, investigating the perceptual world widely in order to discover the conditions underlying the perception of two contrary objects, actions or properties. Many fields are explored, from the perception of space in laboratory conditions to the perception of space in ecological environments; from recognition of contrary visual patterns to the perception of reflections; from drawing contrary figures to making contrary gestures; from recognition of contrariety in music to the effect of contrariety in memory processes…Ivana Bianchi is associate professor of General Psychology at the University of Macerata, Department of Educational Science. She is working in the field of the experimental phenomenology of perception, in particular on the perception of contrariety between visual stimuli, on mirror perception and on methodological issues concerning experimental phenomenology (such as inter–observation).Ugo Savardi is full professor of General Psychology at the University of Verona, Department of Psychology and Cultural Anthropology. His main research interests are in the theoretical and methodological foundations of experimental phenomenology, the direct perception of relationships (similarity, contrariety, diversity) and the perception and representation of space.