I know there’s a specific, scientific term from psychology or neuroscience that relates to the explanation of why we humans are so apt to see things like images in clouds and so forth that aren’t actually present. I just can’t recall what it is!
Little help?
pattern recognition?
Are you thinking of anthropomorphism?
That’s in the ballpark, because it is an aspect of pattern recognition is involved in this. But we’re not quite there yet.
Thank you for your reply, but that’s not quite it either. What I’m looking for has to do with an evolved, universal neurological trait that provokes our minds into seeing patterns within ambiguous visual data, particularly patterns that are not actually present. This thing-that-I-can’t-recall not only prompts us to see human faces that aren’t actually present, but also things like that crackpot named Key claimed were sexual images in ice cubes in liquor ads (but I’m not referring to subliminal perception or the like).
signal-noise error?
Looks like the answer to me.
Yes, that is just the term I was trying to recall.
Thank you.
You’re welcome 