returning to the question of why, when the image track says A and the sound track says B we tend to believe that A is true: emily says FORWARDED MESSAGE [CUT]: And I agree with Barbara Bernstein that it is easy to lie verbally. To "lie" behaviorally is far more complicated, as so many of our body language communiques are unconscious. Hence, when behavioral and verbal information conflict, behavior (what we see) is a more reliable indicator of the truth. IMHO. END OF FORWARDED MESSAGE i think this is undoubtedly true, but it leaves out a critical step: when we watch a movie we are NOT watching behavior at all, we're watching [as well as listening to] representations of behavior, a representation of visual behavior and a represntation of verbal behavior . . . and the question is why we privilege one REPRESENTATION over the other . . . perhaps, despite the missing step, emily is right that we do so by intuitive analogy to the "real" world where, if someone says B even while doing A, we accept A as valid or true or accurate . . . . . . but i still think more--perhaps much more--is going on . . . as some other replies to this speculative inquiry have suggested there are at least three separate axis along which this ostensibly simple binary may be charted . . . one is the binary of pictures [images] and words [ordinary language] . . . a second, subtly but significantly different, is the binary of the visual and the aural--keeping in mind that words can be written down and then enter the universe of the visual despite retaining their status as symbols rather than icons [this is the binary that emphasizes most strongly the possible gender related characters of the two modes, suggesting that words that we see and read work differently than words that we hear, that the mode of perception is perhaps more important than the nature of the representation] . . . and third, the binary syggested by emily of the real and the representation . . . more, i suspect, remains to be said on this mike frank ---- To signoff SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]