Northern Advocate
  • Northern Advocate home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Sport
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Sport
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings

Locations

  • Far North
  • Kaitaia
  • Kaikohe
  • Bay of Islands
  • Whangārei
  • Kaipara
  • Mangawhai
  • Dargaville

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Kaitaia
  • Whangārei
  • Dargaville

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Northern Advocate

Joanne McNeill: Learn to look rather than see

By Joanne McNeill
Northern Advocate·
20 Oct, 2015 03:00 AM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Joanne McNeill

Joanne McNeill

A man who accidentally shot his son while on a hunting trip was discharged without conviction recently in an Invercargill court.

His defence lawyer claimed that cognitive bias meant the man genuinely believed he was shooting a deer.

Cognitive bias is a deviation from rational judgment in which inferences may be drawn illogically, allowing individuals to create subjective reality, leading to perceptual distortions, inaccuracies and illogical interpretations. Apparently it's common in hunting circles.

I know nothing of hunting but I do know that cognitive bias is by no means confined to hunters.

In my book, it's the widespread tendency of humans to see what they want, expect or are told to see, despite evidence to the contrary. In other words, we're making it up as we go along.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Visual artists confront this pitfall when they try to draw from life. To do it successfully, they must learn to override cognitive bias, to look at the visual information in front of them rather than seeing their own preconceptions. Seeing and looking are vastly different. Looking reveals what's there, whereas seeing creates realities subjectively from a range of quite possibly inaccurate, hard-wired cognitive sources.

Luckily, there's a trick to drawing from life. Anyone can. All it takes is to look always at the subject while drawing, never at the paper. It requires practice though because cognition, that faithful auto-pilot we rely on to know what's what at all times, is not easily relegated to the back seat, and it feels scary at first, like flying blind; but with persistence it becomes evident how much truer is the drawing. Likewise, playing a musical instrument well requires learning to do it without looking at one's fingers (although when practising chords while deliberately looking the other way, a candle set fire to my guitar, so do not try this at home).

Drawing also suffers cognitive bias after the fact. Artists might perceive something wonky with the picture but, because cognitive bias helpfully corrects mistakes, they cannot diagnose the cause. Luckily, another studio trick works here too. Holding the picture up to a mirror immediately reveals glaring inconsistencies because reversing images defeats familiarity.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Writers editing their own work have the same problem. While mistakes in other people's texts jump out like sore toes, writers can reread their own blunders without seeing them because their decoding brains, accustomed to making nonsense logical, gloss over pesky typos in their eagerness to confirm the intended sense.

There's a handy trick to overcome this nuisance too, which is to read your own work out loud. Something about this process immediately makes text inaccuracies obvious. I'm not sure why - maybe projected sound lends an illusion of objectivity or maybe speech requires cognitive faculties to pay more attention.

Unfortunately, I know no handy tricks for overcoming the unwitting cognitive bias which undoubtedly affects everyone's behaviour - on roads, in the bush, with guns - where honest mistakes can be fatal, rather than merely annoying or embarrassing.

No amount of mirrors or declaiming would help hunters - and training courses could easily reinforce biases - but learning to look rather than see is useful general education for anyone. My prescription is compulsory life-drawing classes for all.

Discover more

Joanne McNeill: Weta way to start week

22 Sep 04:00 AM

Joanne McNeill: Tell space invaders: Hands off

06 Oct 03:00 AM

Joanne McNeill: Our dystopian nightmare

13 Oct 03:00 AM

Joanne McNeill: Highs and lows of pot in NZ

27 Oct 03:00 AM
Save

    Share this article

Latest from Northern Advocate

Northern Advocate

Storm leaves 13,000 without power in Tasman

11 Jul 08:18 AM
Northern Advocate

Slip closes Mangamuka Gorge as severe weather lashes Northland

11 Jul 05:46 AM
Northern Advocate

Bay of Islands Vintage Railway earns top tourism award

11 Jul 04:00 AM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Northern Advocate

Storm leaves 13,000 without power in Tasman

Storm leaves 13,000 without power in Tasman

11 Jul 08:18 AM

High winds are ramping up.

Slip closes Mangamuka Gorge as severe weather lashes Northland

Slip closes Mangamuka Gorge as severe weather lashes Northland

11 Jul 05:46 AM
Bay of Islands Vintage Railway earns top tourism award

Bay of Islands Vintage Railway earns top tourism award

11 Jul 04:00 AM
'Still loving it': Libraries manager reflects on retirement decision

'Still loving it': Libraries manager reflects on retirement decision

11 Jul 12:00 AM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • The Northern Advocate e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Northern Advocate
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The Northern Advocate
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP