The Commentaries: Some are Visual Illusions

by Ronald G. Weisman,
Queen’s University

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Abstract

Picture-object correspondence is a means to an end. Without correspondence, experimental results can be merely an intellectual curiosity. With correspondence, descriptive functional relationships can become useful laws of nature. In their objections to the correspondence hypothesis, three of the commentaries favored equivocation fallacies, which blurred the multiple meanings of the words ‘natural’ and ‘ecological’, rendering their alternative hypotheses meaningless. In opposition to extensive and much cited research, one of the commentaries attempted to depreciate research on picture-object correspondence by claiming that it is of little relevance to object recognition. Finally, two of the commentaries resorted to absurd ad hominem and equivocation fallacies in attempts to discredit the critique.

Keywords: pigeons, birds, visual cognition, categorization, correspondence, logical fallacies, explaining nature, functions of science, comparative cognition

Weisman, R. G. (2010). The Commentaries: Some are Visual Illusions. Comparative Cognition & Behavior Reviews, 5, 155-162. Retrieved from http://comparative-cognition-and-behavior-reviews.org/ doi:10.3819/ccbr.2010.50012