Introduction
Pareidolia is the phenomenon of recognizing a meaningful pattern, shape, or object from ambiguous forms in visual scenes. We experience pareidolia when an object is perceived even though it is not actually there (Kato and Mugitani 2015; Liu et al. 2014; Mamiya et al. 2016; Proverbio and Galli 2016). When we recognize an animal’s form in the clouds, a pattern of a leaf in a cup of coffee, or the figure of a reaching arm in the shadow of the tree, we are experiencing pareidolia. More notable examples include seeing a man’s face on the moon or Jesus’ portrayal on a piece of toast (Liu et al. 2014). Most studies focus on a specific type of pareidolia – face pareidolia – in which faces or face-like patterns are recognized in the absence of an actual face (Liu et al. 2014; Proverbio and Galli 2016; Ryan et al. 2016; Takahashi and Watanabe 2013; Wardle et al. 2017). Although examples of face pareidolia emerge spontaneously in the environment, there are also examples of face...
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Flessert, M. (2019). Pareidolia. In: Vonk, J., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_1771-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_1771-1
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