Category Archives: Figure-Ground

The Ultimate Fan Experience

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The topic of this blog post is one to which many Penn State students can relate.  In this way, it may not be unique to me, but it is a new way to look at something that is very familiar to most of us.

What makes Penn State football games such an exciting experience for fans?  Why is the Penn State student section consistently ranked the best in the nation?  The most likely explanation is that people find visual interest in synchronized movements.  Dance routines would not be nearly as impressive if each member of the dance troop performed independently of the others.  People also find interest in large masses of people performing together.  Youtube videos of dancing flash mobs are most exciting when a large number of people join the routine.  I am sure you can see where this discussion is headed.

Now imagine sitting in Beaver Stadium and seeing 20,000 students cheer (and dance and scream) in unison.  In what is probably the largest and most active football student section in the country, we thrive on several psychological principles to create “The Greatest Show in College Football.”  The underlying theme between the three of them is that they make the student section appear to be a single unit, rather than thousands of individuals.

The first of these principles is “synchrony.”  Synchrony states that elements that change at the same time tend to group together.  This is best exemplified by the shakers that are handed to students after entering the stadium.  With the help of the Blue Band and the stadium speakers, students are provided a common cadence for using the shakers.  As they rise and fall together, the student section is transformed into a dynamic unit that operates in unison.

The second principle is “common fate.”  Common fate states that elements that move in the same direction will tend to be grouped together.  What better example than the wave?  This is an event that unites the entire stadium, not just the student section.  Whether it be regular wave, slow wave, or fast wave, it is so aesthetically interesting because we don’t view each person or section independently, but instead see a continuous chain of movement due to common fate.

The third and final principle is broader but still applicable.  The global superiority effect states that the properties of the whole object take precedence over the properties of the parts of the object.  The previous examples can fit into this principle as well.  Viewing a single fan during any cheer would be fairly unimpressive.  The fan experience at Penn State games is so unique because of the large scale of fan participation.  Whether you consider the student section or the entire stadium, it is the whole and not the parts that is most impressive.

Common fate, synchrony, the global superiority effect, and other grouping principles can apply to fan participation at stadiums and arenas all over the world.  Each fan base has its own traditions and cheers, but they all rely on these principles to create unique aesthetic experiences.  It is just my opinion, one shared by many, that Penn State is particularly good at creating the ultimate fan experience.

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In a recent trip to San Francisco over spring break I was confronted with a common psychological problem, a problem of perception. While roaming the rolling hills of the iconic California city, it was hard to establish my bearings. Once reaching the summit of one hill, I looked to find a ridge to follow only to find a series of other large hills and troughs extended before me. The illusion of a horizon was all around me. This experience of an illusionary horizon can be explained through the use of the psychological perception principle of middle vision.

Endless hills of San Francisco.

Middle vision is a proposed theory for visual processing following basic feature extraction and object recognition and contextual understanding. A large roll in middle vision is the perception of edges to determine objects. This leads right into another perceptual theory of figure and ground. Terminology indicative of Gestalt psychology, in which “the whole is greater than the sum of the parts”, a figure is the object which is distinguished from the surrounding ground. However, the two can be competing creating dual images depending upon the recognized figure versus ground.

Changes in horizon perception.

Changes in horizon perception.Steep hills of San Francisco.

Along with object recognition, the Gestalt grouping rule of good continuation in which two elements will tend to group together if they lie on the same contour helps explain my difficulty distinguishing my horizon. Additionally, the city’s architecture and landmark structures created occlusion to the real contour of the city’s hills. When dealing with occlusion that disrupts perception like this the relatability, also known as the degree to which two line segments appear to be part of the same, is used to distinguish curvature.

Further examples of this perceptual problem can be discovered on the Internet through popular anti-gravity videos. These videos “show” a car that defies gravity and rolls up hill while in neutral without any source of energy or operation by a driver. Pop-culture frenzy circulated around these videos as they provide “evidence” against the Newtonian physics that our modern world is built on.  Investigation into these videos by trained scientists however revealed the fundamental perception issue. The bottom of the hill that represented the ground was actually the top of the hill and the true horizon of the landscape providing the gravitational force. As stated in a recent Forbes article, “ the position of trees and slopes of nearby scenery, or a curvy horizon line, can blend to trick the eye so that what looks uphill is actually downhill,” thus creating an optical illusion by the landscape (1).

1. Berezow, Alex. "European Journalist Blame "Anti-Gravity" Spot on Magic, Not Physics." Forbes. 11 Nov 201311 Nov 2013: n. page. Web. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexberezow/2013/11/19/european-journalists-blame-anti-gravity-spot-on-magic-not-physics/>.

 

Photo Sources:

http://www.woohome.com/photograph/steep-hills-of-san-francisco

http://boingboing.net/2010/11/30/san-franciscos-steep.html

http://boingboing.net/2010/11/30/san-franciscos-steep.html