You should not hear it! It is your brain fooling you!

You should not hear it! It is your brain fooling you! Well... but... but... I really do hear it.

This is the following up of the previous blog: Confirmation bias. Do you have it?

My previous blog was based on the following picture (you don't have to read my previous blog before reading this one):

If you see 4 boxes with graident of different greyscales in the middle column. Great, you don't have any confirmation bias. 

What if I told you that there are something wrong with your vision, as you SHOULD see 4 different static grey color boxes instead of gradients. 

The following picture show you the second box is actually a static grey color box (this is the actual capture of the second box in the above picture, you can try to capture it and see for yourself):

You may say, "Cool, now, I know I got tricked by my visual perception". 

AFTER knowing the fact that all the 4 boxes in the middle column of the first picture are indeed just static grey boxes (instead of gradient of greyscale)..

Now, let me ask you a tough question.... a really really tough question:

What do you see in the middle column of the above picture?

Answer A: 4 different boxes of gradient of greyscale? or
Answer B: 4 different boxes of static grey color?

It is not a trick question.

Just answer it based on what you see.

Your answer may be

"Well....hmm...well... hmm... Answer A...

Hang on.... should I pick B ?"

Should you pick B? 

I just ask you what you see. 

If you answer B, your answer is affected by confirmation bias. 

If you answer A, your answer is just reporting what you can see with the above picture.

(Actual answer: it is exaclty the same picture you saw at the beginning of this page. It is just scaled down to a smaller size)

Let's look at a similar situation in the audio space, 

i.e. 

1. You noticed the same music file sound differently by using two different DACs.

2. You checked these two DACs are "audibly transparent" based on objective measurements from a web site like Audio Science Review (ASR) Forum

3.  You go back and listen to the same music file again and you still notice the same music file sound differently on these DACs.

Should you hear no difference based on the objective measurements?

Hmm... should you see 4 static grey color boxes in the the visual experiement above? It is up to you to follow your instinct or fall into the confirmation bias loophole.

FYI, on ASR, there is only one Groupt Think view: i.e. You have to pick B otherwise, you are considered as having some kind of mental block.

Food for thought... do you need to have someone to tell you what you should hear or what you should not? 

=== update on 25 April 2024 ===

1. Yes, the above experiment is one way to show you that your brain can trick you to see something that may not actually be there. Similar things are happening to our hearing too.

2. Our 5 senses are more complex than we thought. However, we do have some basic idea how it works. i.e. they consist of, high-level wise, sensory organs which turn external stimulus into biological electric signal for your brain to interpret. It is your brain that gives you the final perception (e.g. seeing, hearing, etc..). It could be "real" or something your brain "help" you to create. We can talk about why your brain help you to do so later.

3. I strongly believe that the human perception systems are extremly sophisticated. We know something of course but not complete. There are still a lot of research going on. Hoepfully, we can know more and debunk more pseudo science claims later.

4.  By the way, did you actually capture the individual boxes of the middle column of the last picture above to verify independently what I said, i.e. they are static grey color boxes? Are they really?

Or you just simply trust me about it? 

Did I lie to you so that they are indeed gradients?

DON'T TRUST ANYONE ON-LINE. 

Me included. Find out the answer yourself. Enjoy.