Not sure why I went so deep into this, but I got really curious after being brought up to speed about the "controversy" by my 3rd period class. They wanted my opinion, most likely because of my vast physics knowledge, as well as how the white content of my winter beard makes me look wise. I saw white and gold right away, even after being told the true answer was blue and black. The students responded so strongly the other way, I formed a hypothesis and decided to do science to it.
Hypothesis: That adults would tend to see white/gold, while students would tend to see blue/black.
Reasoning: The brain processes not just the light coming off of the object in question, but attempts to contextualize it by processing the surrounding information as well. Since the area immediately surrounding the dress in question was bright, the brain could be influenced to think that the subject was standing in a shadow (awning, tree, etc), with a bright exterior background, resulting in a bluish tint coming from a white dress.
Since adults have more contextual experience than students, it is likely that adults would show a greater tendency to see the "shading effect" than younger students who do not have the same depth of visual contextual experience.
The test: Admittedly unscientific poll asking participants for their impression of the dress color, ignoring the "actual" answer (blue/black). One survey was sent to the staff (presumably adults, although...), one sent to students. Results were tabulated.
Data: Collected 2:30, 2/27/2015
Staff
Blue/Black 12
White/Gold 11
What the...? 7
Students
Blue/Black 19
White/Gold 24
What the...?! 3
Conclusion: I was wrong. Results were approximately even, with a slight students showing a slight tendency towards seeing White/Gold, in contrast to my hypothesis. Due to the nature of this study (self-reporting, small sample size, possible multiple entries), it's hard to tell what if there really is a correlation between age and perception in this case, but it would not appear so. I am chalking up my original hypothesis to availability heuristic: my original perceptions were based on the available sampling of students who coincidentally had a strong opinion.
There has to be a lesson in science, bias, and why/how we do science in there somewhere...
#science
Thanks for your indulgence.
Hypothesis: That adults would tend to see white/gold, while students would tend to see blue/black.
Reasoning: The brain processes not just the light coming off of the object in question, but attempts to contextualize it by processing the surrounding information as well. Since the area immediately surrounding the dress in question was bright, the brain could be influenced to think that the subject was standing in a shadow (awning, tree, etc), with a bright exterior background, resulting in a bluish tint coming from a white dress.
Since adults have more contextual experience than students, it is likely that adults would show a greater tendency to see the "shading effect" than younger students who do not have the same depth of visual contextual experience.
The test: Admittedly unscientific poll asking participants for their impression of the dress color, ignoring the "actual" answer (blue/black). One survey was sent to the staff (presumably adults, although...), one sent to students. Results were tabulated.
Data: Collected 2:30, 2/27/2015
Staff
Blue/Black 12
White/Gold 11
What the...? 7
Students
Blue/Black 19
White/Gold 24
What the...?! 3
Conclusion: I was wrong. Results were approximately even, with a slight students showing a slight tendency towards seeing White/Gold, in contrast to my hypothesis. Due to the nature of this study (self-reporting, small sample size, possible multiple entries), it's hard to tell what if there really is a correlation between age and perception in this case, but it would not appear so. I am chalking up my original hypothesis to availability heuristic: my original perceptions were based on the available sampling of students who coincidentally had a strong opinion.
There has to be a lesson in science, bias, and why/how we do science in there somewhere...
#science
Thanks for your indulgence.