Perception

Perception is the process by which an organism

attains awareness or understanding of its environment by organizing and interpreting sensory information.
(From Wikipedia)

Perception in Communication
In living our lives and communicating with each

other our perception of reality is less important than reality itself. Our perceptions are influence by:

physical elements - what information your eye or ear can actually take in, how your brain processes it. environmental elements - what information is out there to receive, its context. learned elements - culture, personality, habit: what filters we use to select what we take in and how we react to it.

Perception in Communication

 Colour blind people will not perceive "red" the

way as other people do. Those with normal vision may physically see "red" similarly, but will interpret it culturally: Red meaning "stop" or "anger" or "excitement" or "in debt" (US). Red meaning "good fortune" (China). Red meaning your school's colours.

Selective Attention
The world deluges us with sensory information

every second. Our mind produces interpretations and models and perceptions a mile a minute. To survive, we have to select what information we attend to and what we remember.

Information That Attracts Our Attention

Sends out strong physical stimulus: contrast,

blinking, loudness, etc. Elicits emotion -- TV dramas, memory aid: when taking notes on an article, write your emotional response to it. Is unexpected? (This may draw your attention or conversely, you may miss it entirely with your mind filling in the missing pieces you expected to receive.). Fits a pattern. Previous knowledge that gives it context.

 Interests you. Connects to basic needs (belonging, sex,

danger, hunger...). Is useful. Note how important your cultural filters will be in determining the answers to these questions-what hooks your emotions? What is "normal" and what is "unexpected", etc.

 Some sample visual perception

Perception Process
Perception is a three phase process of

selecting, organizing and interpreting information, people, objects, events, situations and activities. You can understand interpersonal situations better if you appreciate how you and another person construct perceptions.

 We select only certain things to notice, and then

we organize and interpret what we have selectively noticed.

What we select to perceive affects how we

organise and interpret the situation.

How we organise and interpret a situation affects

our subsequent selections of what to perceive in the situation.

 Who would you like to be your girlfriend ?

Selection
Notice what is going on around you. Is the room

warm or cold? Messy or clean? Large or small? Light or dark? Can you smell anything?
Are sleepy, hungry comfortable? We narrow our attention to what we defined as

important in that moment.

Selection
We notice things that STAND OUT, and even

change. Hear a loud voice than a soft one. We deliberately influence what we notice by indicating things to ourselves. Smoking is a habit; Focus on burning smell of the match, the smoke, the nasty view of ashtrays with cigarette butts, how bad a room smells when you smoke in it.

Selection
What we select to notice also influenced by who

we are and what is going on in us. Looking for a job. Motives, thirsty people stranded on desert see an oasis. Expectations, likely to perceive what we expect to perceive and what others have led us to perceive.

Organization
Once we selected what to notice, we must make

sense of it. Organize in meaningful ways. Constructivism; we organize and interpret experience by applying cognitive structures called schemata.

Schemata
Prototypes; most representative example of a

category. Defines categories by identifying ideal cases. Ideal models for friendship, family, business group, or relationship. Personal Construct; bipolar, mental yardstick we use to measure people and situation. Intelligent unintelligent, kind unkind.

Schemata
Stereotype; predictive generalization about

individuals and situations based on the category into which we place them. May be accurate or inaccurate. Scripts; guide to action in particular situation. A sequence of activities that define what we and others are expected to do in specific situation. Daily activities dating, talking to professors, dealing with clerks, interacting with co-workers

Schemata
Organize our thinking about people and situation.

Make sense of what we notice and figure out

how to act. Social perspectives and cultural views.

Interpretation
After selection and organizing our perception,

what they mean is not clear. Interpretation subjective process of explaining perceptions in ways that let us make sense of them. Attribution; explanation of why things happen and why people act as they do.

Interpretation
In judging whether others can control their

actions, we decide whether to hold them responsible for what they do. We can be positive depending on how we explain what they do. Self serving bias; bias favour to ourselves. Inclined to make positive actions or negative actions. E.g passing and failing an exam. Can distort our perception .