Phenomenal permanence, emotions, and animacy: The foggy tunnel and what experimental phenomenology anticipated about the brain

A phenomenon studied within the theoretical framework of Experimental Phenomenology is described, together with an experiment mainly aimed at illustrating how Experimental Phenomenology works in practice. Because this phenomenon is easily understood within Michotte’s school of thought, after a general introduction to Experimental Phenomenology, Michotte’s studies on Experimental Phenomenology are briefly described, with particular stress on the so-called tunnel effect. In the classical tunnel effect an object moves in the visual field and disappears behind one side of a screen; then an identical object emerges from the opposite side of the screen. The percept is of a single object that passes behind the screen. The phenomenon introduced in this article consists in a tunnel effect in the absence of a physical screen: A small gray disc traveling horizontally at a constant speed against a white background increases in luminance until it matches the background and then decreases in luminance until its original value. The perceptual outcome is a disc of constant lightness hiding behind a mist and reappearing a little further. The conceptual problems raised by the effect are considered in light of theories on phenomenal permanence, amodal completion, and lightness constancy. Results are discussed in light of both old and recent theories on visual perception, in the attempt of reconciling Experimental Phenomenology with recent theories based on neural and neuroimaging data, thus showing the validity of Experimental Phenomenology for studying visual perception. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)