MIND GAMES

A Clinic About Perception

and Its Importance To Modelers

by Bob Hyman

Part 1 - Introduction

Most railroad clinics are “how-to” clinics.  They show you how to do things – like making trees, laying ties, or painting backdrops.  This clinic is different; it is a “why” clinic.  We’re going to explore something called perception.  In other words, we’re going to try to understand why we perceive thing the way we do – whether they are real world objects or models of those objects.  Once we understand what perception is, and why it works, we can make our models more realistic by simply enhancing the perception of our models by viewers.

Clinic Theme

Models contradict our perception of reality for the briefest moment, and are like candy to the senses. By enhancing sensory perception, we can extend this contradiction, and thereby increase the perceived realism of our models.

Clinic Agenda

Due to the large amount of text and and graphics material, this clinic is divided into five parts.  Each part can be viewed as a separate HTML page.  There are buttons at the bottom of each page that will take you back / forward to the preceding or following page.  Part 3 is the largest, due to the number of visual images.

Clinic Format and Materials

The original clinic consisted primarily of overhead projector view graphs and utilized a lecture / discussion format.  In this "cyber-clinic" version, I have included most of the original graphic images along with a modified version of the lecture text.

Expectations and Limitations

Will this clinic help make you a better modeler? -- NO!

Will it help to make your models be perceived as more realistic?  -- YES!

Personal Information

I am by no means an "expert" in the field of perception.  Model Railroading is my hobby, not my profession.  I work for a large aerospace company where we perform advanced development flight testing for new aerospace systems.  My own background is in the computer simulation and modeling field.  Back in the mid-60’s, I was a missile systems analyst, helping to train launch crews for the Minuteman Missile System.  In the 70’s, I worked for a large computer manufacturer, specializing in man-machine interfacing.  Since the early 80’s, I have worked in the research and development field, working with systems like the Stealth Fighter, the Stealth Bomber, the Advanced Tactical Fighter, the X-series aerospace rocket planes, and the Joint Strike Fighter. 

Reason For Clinic

All of us are model railroaders.  We either build, collect, display, operate, or dream about trains.  We do this for different reasons.  Some of us try to recreate something from our past – to bring memories to life.  Others do it for pure relaxation or pleasure, or simply to satisfy some inner creative urge.  Many of us use modeling as a temporary escape from the everyday pressures of real-life; we trade one reality for another. In any case, we have a common bond – a thread that binds all of us together and allows us to share a common dialog.

It is not too difficult to build a model that will appeal to other modelers.  Our fellow modelers may be a bit more picky than an outside, uninitiated observer; but at least the modeler understands what he is looking at.  It is that common bond between us that allows us to communicate ideas via our models.  Building models that appeal to the non-modeler is quite a bit more difficult.  How many times have you spent countless hours detailing a model, only to have your wife say “That’s cute…what is it?”.

There are some things we can do with our models that will improve the way they are seen by both our modeling and non-modeling friends.  Many of these things are perfect for us modelers; they are simple, quick and inexpensive.  But before we get into the details, we need to understand just how and why we see things the way we do.

Real-World Modeling and Simulation

I would like to relate a story to you from my past that will shed a little light on just what I’m getting at here.  Back in the 1960’s, I was working as a simulation technician for the Air Force.  Part of my job was to program and operate the simulators that were used to train missile launch crews.  The simulators were complex, computer operated enclosures that emulated actual underground launch control centers.  Every indicator and switch on the various panels was operational.  All communications links were duplicated.  From a purely visual standpoint, the simulator was identical to a real launch center.  Every launch crew had to undergo a simulator training and evaluation session monthly.  We debriefed the launch crew after every session to gather their comments and evaluate their performance.  We used the debriefing comments to make the simulator sessions more realistic.  The most common comment was “It was somewhat realistic, but I always knew I was in a simulator.”  When pressed for details, most crews would simply add “It was too clean”, or “Too quiet;” or “It smelled too new”, or “It just didn’t feel the same”.  They weren’t quite sure just why, but they knew that something was different.

One day I decided to try a little experiment.  I took a small electric motor, mounted a weight on the shaft, and rigged it so that it was out of balance.  I then mounted the motor under the floor of the simulator and turned it on.  The result was a slight, almost imperceptible, vibration that simulated the effect of the large motor generators which were located under the floor of the real launch centers.  I then took a rag, dipped it in hydraulic fluid, and wiped down the large dummy shock absorbers in the corners of the simulator.  I smeared some grease around the wooden door that simulated the eight-ton blast door.  Finally, I connected an audio signal generator, set to create background static “white noise”, to the audio system.  This injected a very low-level, almost imperceptible hiss to the simulated communications with the outside world.

The first launch crew to use the simulator after the changes was ecstatic about the “new” simulation.  They were sure that a new version of the software must have been incorporated.  They raved about how we had finally managed to duplicate the actual launch center operation.  The funny thing is – I didn’t change anything in the simulation.  All that  I had done was to play some mind games on the launch crew.

Simulation has come a long way since the sixties.  It is no longer relegated to the military and space applications.  Today, the buzz word is virtual reality.  Modern computer technology enables us to incorporate sophisticated visual and other sensory tricks upon the observer.  Throughout our entire society – in entertainment, in manufacturing, and even in our daily household lives—we have blurred the dividing line between what is real and what is simulated or modeled.