"Take Christopher Columbus, for example. Like many seamen, he knew stories of mermaids; but unlike many seamen, Columbus actually reported seeing them, although he said they weren't nearly as attractive as he expected (e.g., Bergreen, 2011). He was actually looking at West Indian manatees; but he'd never seen manatees before, so he interpreted them in terms of his prior frameworks for understanding (e.g., Bransford & Johnson, 1972)."
"It includes images of men swimming with their mouths pressed into what appear to be inflated goatskins. The basic concept on many internet sites, and on a variety of "documentaries," is that this relief depicts ancient people diving with, essentially, an antique form of SCUBA apparatus. People really believe this. However, this bas-relief, about 2900 years old and hailing from the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud, doesn't depict any such thing. It actually shows soldiers of Assyrian King Ashurnasirpal crossing a river."
Human perception is filtered by prior ideas and cultural frameworks, so observers interpret ambiguous stimuli according to expectations. Christopher Columbus mistook West Indian manatees for mermaids because he had mermaid frameworks but lacked knowledge of manatees. A 2,900-year-old Assyrian bas-relief from Nimrud shows soldiers crossing a river, with swimming horses and troops ferrying chariot parts, not ancient SCUBA divers. Internet sites and documentaries sometimes misinterpret the relief as evidence of antique diving apparatus. Inflated goatskins cannot function as SCUBA: air regulation would be unworkable, and breath-holding with ascent of several feet risks severe physiological harm.
#eyewitness-bias #prior-knowledge-effects #columbus-manateemermaid-misidentification #assyrian-bas-relief-misinterpretation
Read at Psychology Today
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