Can We Link Perception And Cognition?

Exploratory original-research post mining the SSC survey for links between perception and cognition. Finds 'weirder' groups (schizophrenics, but also transhumanists, poly, gay, EA) and lower-functioning groups (dropouts, single people) reliably see more ambiguity in the Hollow Mask and Spinning Dancer illusions; notes SSC readers are ~10x more INTJ/INTP. Under the Bayesian-brain hypothesis (perception and reason sharing one process), sketches an ambitious program: use a battery of illusions to isolate cognitive-style factors that might predict reasoning biases and high-level beliefs (analytic vs continental, liberal vs conservative — noting NMDA receptors implicated in both Hollow-Mask perception and political opinion). Honest that it's 'overly ambitious' and possibly confounded.

Quality 60 · Strong. 60 — Strong floor, held FIRM. A genuinely intriguing generative idea (perception as a window onto cognitive style via the Bayesian brain), but thin, preliminary, correlational and self-flagged as overreaching — the idea earns the floor; the lack of follow-through keeps it from going higher.

Claude’s paradigm shift 46 · Moderate. 46 — Moderate. The perception->cognitive-style-via-illusions research program is a fresh, non-obvious angle, though sketched rather than established.

Real-world impact 2 · Minor. 2 — within-blog original-research curiosity (the SSC-survey illusion line); no reach beyond it.