The Perception Process

Summary

This script delves into the complex nature of perception, explaining how it helps us navigate the overwhelming influx of sensory information. It outlines the three key stages of perception: selection, organization, and interpretation. Selection involves focusing on salient or familiar information, while organization orders this data. Interpretation uses schemata and attributions to make sense of our experiences, shaping our understanding of reality. The script challenges viewers to consider how their perceptions might differ based on personal biases and experiences.

Takeaways

• 🔍 Perception is a complex process that helps us interpret the chaos of sensory inputs.
• 👁‍🗨 The first step in perception is 'selection', where we choose what to pay attention to from the information we receive.
• 🌟 'Salience' determines what information we select, influenced by what is out of the ordinary or deviates from our expectations.
• 🎯 'Selective perception' refers to our tendency to focus on information that is familiar or important to us.
• 🖼️ An example of selection is the famous 'vase or two faces' illusion, where different elements stand out based on individual perception.
• 🗣️ The second step, 'organization', involves ordering the selected information in a way that makes sense to us.
• 💭 The final step, 'interpretation', is where we make sense of the organized information, often using our existing 'schemata' or expectations.
• 🧠 'Schemata' are mental frameworks that shape our interpretations of people, places, events, and can be both positive and negative.
• 🔄 It's crucial to adjust our schemata based on new experiences and knowledge to ensure accurate perception.
• 🤔 'Attributions' are explanations we create for others' behaviors, attributing them to internal or external factors.

Q & A

What is the primary function of perception?

Perception helps us to interpret the chaos of what we see, hear, touch, etc., by organizing and making sense of the numerous inputs of information we experience.

What are the three key processes involved in perception?

The three key processes involved in perception are selection, organization, and interpretation of information.

What is meant by 'selection' in the context of perception?

Selection refers to the first step in the perception process where we choose to pay attention to certain information before making any decisions about it.

What factors influence the selection of information during perception?

The factors that influence the selection of information during perception include salience, which is the degree to which something attracts our attention, and selective perception, which is our tendency to focus on what we are familiar with or what is important to us.

What is salience and how does it affect perception?

Salience is the degree to which a particular aspect of communication or an event attracts our attention, often due to it being out of the ordinary or deviating from our expectations.

How does selective perception differ from salience?

Selective perception refers to our tendency to pay attention to what we are familiar with or what is important to us, whereas salience is about what stands out as unusual or significant in our environment.

What is the role of goals and expectations in the perception process?

Goals and expectations play a role in perception by influencing what we find salient and therefore what information we choose to select and prioritize.

Can you provide an example of how salience might manifest in a classroom setting?

In a classroom, the teacher saying a student's name or stating that a topic is on the exam would be salient because it is perceived as important and thus attracts the student's attention.

What is the significance of the image with the black outline of a vase and two white faces?

The image illustrates the concept of selective perception, where different elements of the image can be perceived as the primary focus depending on what the viewer finds most salient or important.

What is interpretation in the context of perception?

Interpretation is the final step in the perception process where we make decisions about the information we have selected and organized, often using our schemata and attributions to make sense of it.

What are schemata and how do they influence our interpretation during perception?

Schemata are our pre-existing expectations about people, places, events, etc., that we use to interpret new information. They can be based on stereotypes or personal experiences and help us make sense of what we perceive.

How do attributions contribute to the interpretation process in perception?

Attributions are the explanations we create for others' comments or behaviors. They can be internal, attributing behavior to a person's personality or characteristics, or external, attributing behavior to environmental factors or circumstances.

Outlines

00:00

🔍 Understanding Perception: A Complex Process

This paragraph introduces the concept of perception, defining it as more than just a worldview. Perception is described as a complex process that helps individuals make sense of the chaotic world around them. The process involves three main steps: selection, organization, and interpretation. The paragraph goes on to explain the importance of selecting what information to focus on, which is the first step in understanding and making sense of the surrounding chaos. It discusses the factors that influence selection, such as the salience of stimuli—things that stand out due to their unusual or attention-grabbing nature—and selective perception, which refers to focusing on what is familiar or important to an individual.

05:01

🎯 Prioritizing Information: Salience and Selective Perception

This paragraph delves deeper into the concept of salience in perception. It explains that salience is determined by how much something stands out in our environment, such as a loud noise or a visually striking image. The paragraph discusses the role of salience in communication, highlighting how deviations from expectations can capture our attention. It also covers selective perception, which is the tendency to focus on information that is personally relevant or significant. The example of a classroom setting is used to illustrate how different individuals might prioritize different types of information based on their personal experiences and concerns. This paragraph emphasizes the importance of what stands out most in our environment and how we prioritize that information in the process of perception.

Keywords

💡Perception

Perception is the process by which the brain organizes and interprets sensory information to make sense of the world around us. In the video, perception is described as a complex process that helps us interpret the chaos of sensory inputs such as what we see, hear, touch, and smell. It is not just a worldview but involves selection, organization, and interpretation of information. The video emphasizes that perception allows us to prioritize and make sense of the vast amount of stimuli we encounter.

💡Selection

Selection refers to the first step in the perception process where we choose to pay attention to certain stimuli over others. The video explains that selection is influenced by the salience of the information and our selective perception, which is our tendency to focus on what is familiar or important to us. For example, in a classroom, a student might select the topic of anxiety reduction as more salient due to personal relevance, while another might focus on delivery techniques.

💡Salience

Salience is the degree to which certain aspects of communication or stimuli attract our attention. The video uses the example of a loud noise or an outrageous attire to illustrate how such out-of-the-ordinary events can be salient and thus selected for further processing. It also mentions how our goals and expectations can make certain information salient, such as when a teacher emphasizes that a topic is important for an exam.

💡Selective Perception

Selective perception is the tendency to focus on information that is personally relevant or familiar. The video explains that this can vary greatly between individuals, depending on their interests, experiences, and current circumstances. It uses the classroom setting as an example, where different students might focus on different aspects of a lecture based on their personal anxieties or expertise.

💡Organization

Organization is the second step in the perception process, where we structure the selected information into a coherent form. The video suggests that once we have selected the information that is salient to us, we then organize it in a way that makes sense to us, which can vary based on our individual experiences and expectations.

💡Interpretation

Interpretation is the final step in the perception process, where we make sense of the organized information. The video discusses how interpretation is influenced by our schemata and attributions. It involves deciding what we believe to be the truth or meaning behind the information we have selected and organized.

💡Schemata

Schemata are mental frameworks or templates that guide our understanding and interpretation of the world. The video explains that schemata are based on our expectations about people, places, events, and can sometimes lead to stereotyping. They help us to quickly interpret new information by comparing it to our existing knowledge and experiences, such as expecting a dark alleyway to be dangerous or a Super Bowl event to be fun.

💡Attributions

Attributions are the explanations we create for other people's comments or behaviors. The video describes how we attribute behaviors to either internal factors, like personality, or external factors, like circumstances or other people's influence. This process helps us to interpret why someone might act in a certain way, such as attributing a job acquisition to either the person's skills or their connections.

💡Perceptual Influences

Perceptual influences are the various factors that can affect how we perceive and interpret information. The video hints at this concept by discussing how our perceptions can sometimes be inaccurate, suggesting that there are external and internal influences that can distort or shape our understanding of reality.

💡Chaos

In the context of the video, chaos refers to the overwhelming amount of sensory input and information we receive daily. Perception helps us to navigate this chaos by selecting, organizing, and interpreting the information that is most relevant or important to us, allowing us to function effectively in a complex world.

Highlights

Perception is a process that helps us interpret the chaos of sensory input.

Perception involves selection, organization, and interpretation of information.

Selection is the first step in perception, focusing on what we pay attention to.

Salience is the degree to which something attracts our attention.

Selective perception is influenced by what we find familiar or important.

Goals and expectations play a role in what we deem as salient in communication.

Deviations from expectations can also be perceived as salient.

The example of a classroom scenario illustrates how salience works.

Selective perception is shown through differing focuses in a public speaking class.

An optical illusion image demonstrates the concept of selection in perception.

Interpretation is the final step where we make decisions based on selected and organized information.

Schemata are our expectations about people, places, and events that influence interpretation.

Stereotyping is a form of schemata that can be both positive and negative.

Attributions are explanations we create for others' comments or behaviors.

Internal attributions are based on personality or characteristics, while external attributions are based on environmental factors.

Perceptual influences and their accuracy are topics for further discussion.

Transcripts

there are things known and there are

things unknown and in between are the

doors of perception now what is

perception what is it and what does it

do what's the point of it you know often

times people see perception as just a

worldview and while that is true that is

part of perception it is a much more

complicated process perception helps us

to interpret the chaos of what we see

hear touch etc there are numerous input

inputs of information in our experiences

we hear we smell we feel we experience

things on a number of levels more so now

than any generation before that's chaos

and perception helps us to organize that

chaos it is a process a process is

starts with purely selecting information

selection is a first step in the whole

process of perception which then leads

to organization of the information and

then subsequently interpretation of the

information so let's look at those three

things what is selection how does that

work there are two things that come with

selection that we need to examine

further both of these things affect what

information we choose to select if any

at all so as we said perception allows

us to make sense of the chaos well the

very first thing to do in order to make

sense of chaos is to select what you are

going to pay attention to it is to

gather that information first before you

can make any decisions about it so we

have to start by attending to certain

things and some of the things that are

most prevalent to us in this part of the

process are things that are salient the

salience of something is a degree to

which a particular people or aspects of

their communication attract our

attention so anything that would be out

of the ordinary when is communication

salient it's when a person behaves in a

visual

or audibly stimulating manner so maybe

it would be something like a loud noise

screaming and yelling maybe it would be

an outrageous attire something that is

stimulating either auditorally or

visually and then if our goals and our

expectations lead us to view the

communication exchange as important we

find it to be salient if you've ever

been in a classroom and the teacher has

said your name or said this is on the

exam or this is important all of those

things are salient to us because we

perceive them to be important when the

exchange deviates from our expectations

we also see that as salient so when we

are communicating with someone and they

say or do something that is completely

opposite or different from our

expectations then we view that as

salient the salience isn't the only part

of it selective perception is also

prevalent here selective perception

means that we pay attention to what we

are familiar with or what is important

to us and that might be different for

different people you may be sitting in a

classroom in psychology or interpersonal

communication and hear topics that for

you is important topic a is important

for you but topic B is important for the

person sitting next to you depending

upon the circumstance for example in a

public speaking class maybe you have

high anxiety about giving a speech but

the person sitting next to you has been

in a formal speech competition for their

whole high school career you are going

to focus intently on discussions of

anxiety reduction and how to give a

speech without completely freaking out

whereas the person sitting next to you

may focus more on how to deliver more

effectively so tone of voice and posture

and gestures and such it depends on what

is most valuable or most important to

you so selective perception and salience

are part of the selection process now

when you look at this image here what

sticks out first there are two images

there is the black outline which is that

of a vase and then you have the two

white faces here so which comments or

behaviors occur first in the

communication which sticks out the most

to you so if you are having a

conversation and somebody says I'm fine

in a unhappy tone what is going to stick

out first what is the most important

thing to you at that moment is it the

words I'm fine

or is it the words or excuse me the tone

within those words which one sticks out

the most so for many of us that might be

the tone we attend to that we organize

that as the most important piece of

information first and the words come

second so we have ordered it in a

certain manner and when you look at this

picture which one sticks out to you

first for some of you you've maybe seen

this photo before and so you know what

to see right at the get-go you know that

both of them stick out to you for others

it might be that this background here is

sort of pale in tone so the black they

sticks out most it depends on what you

find as the most intense for you but the

question really isn't what is the most

obvious it's what is the most important

for that situation what are you going to

prioritize first as the most important

important indicator of the situation and

finally we have interpretation and

interpretation is how we take all of the

information that we've selected and

we've organized and then we come to a

decision about it so what can we use to

interpret what we see here in touch well

for example we start with something

called schemata and those are

expectations that we hold about people

places events etc oftentimes you hear

people talk about stereotyping that fits

in that category schemata are our

schemes they are scenarios that we

create for certain people places or

things so for example

you may believe that going into a dark

alleyway in the middle of the night in

New York City is not a good idea maybe

you've never been to New York City

before but you just feel like that is

the picture you're going to paint of the

situation that is an expectation you

have about that place at that time and

is it a negative thing that you feel

that way potentially but it could also

be a positive thing and save you some

destruction in addition it could be on a

positive situation for example example

imagine if you were offered tickets to

the Super Bowl have you ever been to the

Super Bowl whether you have or not does

not deter whether you expect it to be

fun many of you would say a Super Bowl I

want to go that sounds like a blast even

if you've never been before because you

have expectations that you hold about

that event so it is sometimes positive

sometimes negative it's something that

does allow us to make interpretations

but we have to be able to adjust those

schemata based on our experiences and

our knowledge gained through research

and unexpected situations another part

of it is attributions these are creating

explanations for others comments or

behaviors so you're it's your

decision-making about why people do what

they do

sometimes we attribute behaviors to

internal issues and sometimes we

attribute them to external if we're

attributing a behavior to an internal

issue a person's behavior can be

explained from your point of view by

their personality or their

characteristics just who they are who

they are on the inside internally so

when you say well they got that job

because they are so smart and so

outgoing that would be attributing their

behavior to internal factors external

factors where would be when a person's

behavior can be explained by outside

factors the environment the circumstance

other people and so on so in that same

scenario you might say that they got

that job because they knew the

vice-president or they got that job

because they

had a list of really good letters of

recommendation so these would be

external attributions all of these

things end up helping us to determine

what we are going to interpret in the

circumstance what are we going to

determine is the truth about what we are

seeing and experiencing sometimes we're

accurate sometimes we're completely

wrong and that's another topic we want

to talk about perceptual influences and

we'll get to that later