A Validity and Reliability Study of Pareidolia Test

Abstract

Objectives: Pareidolia is a phenomenon as the interpretation of something as a familiar pattern in a stimulus or an image by the brain, which actually does not exist. Face pareidolia is the visual illusion and hallucination perception of nonexistent faces. The pareidolia test is used to evoke visual illusions. The aim of the study was to create a simplified version of the pareidolia test and perform the validity and reliability tests. 

Materials and Methods: The Pareidolia test was conducted with 75 healthy volunteers. To determine the validity of this test, Kendall W analysis was used. For the internal coherence of the test within its subdimensions the Cronbach alpha coefficient was used and Pearson Correlation Analysis was used in the reliability studies. 

Results: There were 75 healthy adult volunteers in this study, 34 participants were female and 41 were male. The average age of participants was 21.46 ± 2.17. The coefficient of Cronbach Alpha was 0.88 which had a high degree of reliability. 

Conclusion: The pareidolia test is a reliable and valid tool for scanning visual illusions in adults. Findings of the simplified version of the pareidolia test might be extended by collecting clinical data. For example, it would be possible to apply the same procedure to clinical patients with dementia with Lewy bodies or with Alzheimer disease.

Keywords

• Pareidolia,visual perception,brain

Pareidolia Testinin Geçerlilik ve Güvenirlilik Çalışması

Öz

Amaç: Pareidolia, gerçekte var olmayan bir nesnenin bir uyaran veya bir görüntüde beyin tarafından tanıdık bir patern olarak yorumlanmasıdır. Yüz pareidolia, var olmayan yüzlerin görsel yanılsama ve halüsinasyon algısıdır. Pareidolia testi, görsel yanılsamaları uyarmak için kullanılır. Bu çalışmanın amacı, pareidolia testinin basitleştirilmiş bir versiyonunu oluşturmak, geçerlik ve güvenirlik testlerini yapmaktır.
Materyal ve Metot: Pareidolia testi 75 sağlıklı gönüllü birey ile gerçekleştirildi. Bu testin geçerliliğini belirlemek için Kendall W analizi kullanıldı. Testin alt boyutlarında iç tutarlılığı için Cronbach alfa katsayısı kullanılmış ve güvenilirlik çalışmalarında Pearson Korelasyon Analizi kullanıldı.
Bulgular: Bu çalışmadaki 75 yetişkin sağlıklı gönüllü katılımcının 34’ü kadın 41’i erkekti. Katılımcıların yaş ortalaması 21,46 ± 2,17 olarak belirlendi. Cronbach Alpha katsayısı 0,88 olup, yüksek güvenilirlik derecesine sahipti. 
Sonuç: Pareidolia testi, yetişkinlerde görsel yanılsamaların taranması için güvenilir ve geçerli bir testtir. Pareidolia testinin basitleştirilmiş versiyonunun bulguları klinik veriler toplanarak genişletilebilir. Örneğin, aynı prosedür Lewy cisimli demans veya Alzhemir hastalığı olan klinik hastalarda uygulamak mümkün olabilir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Pareidolia,görsel algı,beyin

References

1. 1. Kandel ER, Schwartz JH, Jessell TM, Siegelbaum SA, Hudspeth AJ. Principles of Neural Science, Fifth Edition, New York; McGraw Hill; 2012.
2. 2. Yokoi K, Nishio Y, Uchiyama M, et al. Hallucinators find meaning in noises: pareidolic illusions in dementia with Lewy bodies. Neuropsychologia 2014;56:245–54.
3. 3. Proverbio AM. Sex differences in social cognition: The case of face processing. J Neurosci Res 2017;95:222-34. 4. Kato M, Mugitani R.Pareidolia in infants. PLoS One 2015;10:e0118539.
4. 5. Liu J, Li J, Feng L, Li L, Tian J, Lee K. Seeing Jesus in a toast: neural and behavioral correlates of face pareidolia. Cortex 2014;53:60–77.
5. 6. Proverbio AM, Galli J. Women are better at seeing faces where there are none: an ERP study of face pareidolia. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2016;11(9):1501-12.
6. 7. O’Craven KM, Kanwisher N. Mental imagery of faces and places activates corresponding stimulus-specific brain regions. J Cogn Neurosci 2000;12:1013-23.
7. 8. Hadjikhani N, Kveraga K, Naik P, Ahlfors SP. Early (M170) activation of the face-specific cortex by face-like objects. Neuroreport 2009;20,:403–7.
8. 9. Liu T, Mu S, He H, et al. The N170 component is sensitive to face-like stimuli: a study of Chinese Peking opera makeup. Cogn Neurodyn 2016;10:535–41.

9. 10. Nihei Y, Minami T, Nakauchi S. Brain Activity Related to the Judgment of Face-Likeness: Correlation between EEG and Face-Like Evaluation. Front Hum Neurosci 2018;16:12-56.
10. 11. Mamiya Y, Nishio Y, Watanabe H, et al. The Pareidolia Test: A Simple Neuropsychological Test Measuring Visual Hallucination-Like Illusions. PLoS One 2016; 11(5):e0154713.
11. 12. Uchiyama M, Nishio Y, Yokoi K, et al. Pareidolias: complex visual illusions in dementia with Lewy bodies. Brain 2012;135:2458–69. 13. Ey H. Traité des hallucinations. Paris: Masson; 1973.
12. 14. Oyebode F. Sim’s symptoms in the mind. Philadelphia: Elsevier; 2008.
13. 15. Collerton D, Perry E, McKeith I. Why people see things that are not there: a novel Perception and Attention Deficit model for recurrent complex visual hallucinations. Behav Brain Sci 2005;28:737–94.
14. 16. Mosimann UP, Rowan EN, Partington CE, et al. Characteristics of visual hallucinations in Parkinson disease dementia and dementia with lewy bodies. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry 2006;14:153–60.
15. 17. Nagahama Y, Okina T, Suzuki N, Matsuda M, Fukao K, Murai T. Classification of psychotic symptoms in dementia with Lewy bodies. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry 2007;15:961–7.