18 September Today's term from psychology is Pareidolia.

18 September

Today's term from psychology is Pareidolia.

In simple terms, Pareidolia is when your mind makes you sees an image where none exists, or hear voices where there are none. If you've even seen a face, or perhaps some object in a cloud; or if you've seen the woman or the rabbit in the moon; or if you've ever seen the face of Jesus or Mary in the smudges on a church wall or a piece of toast; then you have experienced pareidolia first hand.

It can also be experienced as hidden messages within recorded music played in reverse or at higher or lower-than-normal speeds; or as hearing indistinct voices in random noise such as that produced by air conditioners or fans.

This is the origin of many events that are interpreted as religious or paranormal in nature.

Pareidolia is distinguished from the similar phenomenon of apophenia in that apophenia is the spontaneous perception of some form of meaningful connection between unrelated phenomena, while pareidolia is a type of illusion in which a vague or obscure stimulus is perceived as something clear and distinct.