Homework 7, due in class 11/3

Please type your answers.

1. In class on 10/27 we were discussing hypothesis 3. We talked about a scenario involving the oddball illusion. The problem for hypothesis 3 had something to do a lag that the hypothesis seemed to require between stimulus and consciousness, after the oddball stimulus had appeared. Describe, in your own words, the scenario we were discussing.

2. Write down a valid argument against hypothesis 3, with premises that concern what is going on in, and what hypothesis 3 seems to say, about this scenario.

3. How might hypothesis 3 be defended against this argument? That is, which premise might a defender of hypothesis 3 reject? And what reason might they give for thinking that that premise was false?

4. Find a wall, a friend, and a ruler. Stand 5 feet from the wall. Determine, as best you can, the largest number of inches N such that you can take it a section of the wall of width N "in a glance" (in Merino-Rajme's sense of this term).

5.Obtain a stopwatch. Watch some piece of action unfold (a dance performance on youtube in fullscreen mode is an option). Determine, as best you can, the largest number of tenths of a second N such that you can take in a visible motion or change that lasts N "in a glance."

6. Of the five hypotheses about subjective duration we discussed (the four on the slides, plus Merino-Rajme's "quantum" theory), which do you think is best, and why?