The Psychology of Perception

If I ask you a little question of what you see in this picture, you'll probably have a similar outlook; buildings, river, boats, and bicycles in air.

But the difference arises when you're asked for evaluating the same. And that difference is what you call, a matter of perception.

The only true voyage of discovery...would be not to visit strange lands, but to possess other eyes, to behold the universe through the eyes of another, of a hundred others, to behold the hundred universes that each of them beholds, that each of them is.

— Marcel Proust

Perception is everything—and it is flawed. Most of us go about our everyday routines believing that we view the world as it truly is. It's safe to assume that our minds are taking in an objective reality. However, this is not entirely the case. It is only through the lens of our prior experiences that we can truly understand what we see and hear in the present.

SENSATION Vs PERCEPTION

In order to perceive something, our sense organs must detect some form of physical energy. It is through these sense organs that we convert sensory data such as sound waves into electrochemical energy that the brain can make sense of it. As of this point, all of the information is the same for everyone; unbiased.

To understand human perception, you must first understand that all information in and of itself is meaningless.

— Beau Lotto

Quiet true. From the simplest to the most complex sensory input, meaning is applied to everything. Perception is the term used to describe the way our brains process sensory data after it leaves our eyes and ears. Everything we see, hear, taste, touch, feel, and taste is filtered through our individual set of past world experiences. There are times when a misinterpretation of a word or phrase can have a negative impact on the real world.

Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.

—Philip K. Dick

Philosophers have long tried to figure out if and how it is possible to really know what is going on in the outside world. We, as sentient beings, are completely dependent on what we think and feel and are stuck in our minds, or brains.

On the other hand, we find our own subjective thoughts and feelings very interesting and don't realize how unreliable they can be. People can be hard to persuade that their experiences happened "in here" and not "out there.

Don't Put All Your Faith in What You Think

I often hear about people's strange ways of seeing things, and not just from those who are psychotic.

Distorted perceptions can be caused by a wide range of abnormal conditions as well as a lot of normal things that are misunderstood.

Still, our own subjective experiences are so convincing that we are more likely to question the laws of physics than our own minds. We can't help but think that what we see is what is real. People don't realize how much our minds can make up their own convincing realities. They don't realize how real some hallucinations, dissociative experiences, and other well-known mental and neural mistakes can seem.

To get out of this, you need to convince yourself to be skeptical about your own beliefs, that is, to look at the evidence for your assumptions and not just accept them at face value.

The Brain is a Virtual Reality Machine that is well-tuned but not Perfect

You don't have a brain. You are a brain.

Your thoughts and feelings about the outside world are like a form of virtual reality.

In a way, we're like the brains in The Matrix. We're stuck inside our heads and get inputs that are mostly just simulations of the outside world.

Luckily, our brains are very much a part of our bodies. It's true that the inputs from the body and its sense organs are like simulations, but most of the time we can be pretty sure that they are accurate representations of the real things out there. We can be pretty sure that evolution has shaped these representations to be pretty close to the real world, because organisms that couldn't accurately and reliably sense and respond to their environments wouldn't have lasted long and wouldn't have had many offspring, so they would have died out. We are related to animals that were pretty good at figuring things out.

But many things can change or fool the way a creature sees things, and we are no different. The brain is an organ that uses a lot of energy, so it had to develop ways to save energy by making assumptions and best guesses. As a machine for making predictions, it has to take short cuts when it comes to recognizing patterns in the huge amounts of information its sense organ outgrowths bring in from the outside world. It also fills in gaps in the information it gets from its senses and smooths out any bumps.

Consciousness of Self-illusion

According to neuroscience, the self is a very complex illusion. The self is not a single, coherent "thing." Instead, the brain is made up of many separate modules that work together.

We can't know what our choices and actions are based on because our unconscious neuronal determinants are so complicated and unconscious. The brain makes an easy-to-understand story about a single "self" that controls all of our thoughts and actions, as if there were a "Mini Me" sitting somewhere behind our eyes and running the whole thing.

Evolution probably shaped our brains this way because this illusion is a very good way to help us work.

Consciousness probably grew out of a need for organisms to be able to respond to stimuli in more than just a reflexive way—to be able to respond in a more flexible, delayed, and planned way. (One of the most important things consciousness does is probably allow non-reflexive behavior, like responding after a delay or acting on plans made by the mind).

Perception is no real

"Perception is reality" is something we hear a lot in the business world, in politics, in marriages, and whenever there is a disagreement or a fight. People often use this aphorism to back up a point of view that may not be true or is just out of touch with reality. It's used as a club to force other people to agree with someone's version of "reality." On a more philosophical level, this saying gives the impression that things are relative (think "squishy") when they are probably absolute (think "the world is flat").

Here's what the dictionary says about perception:

"How something is seen, understood, or interpreted; a mental impression."

And this is what the dictionary says about reality:

"The world or the way things are as they are... existence that is absolute, self-sufficient, or objective and not affected by human decisions or conventions.

Perception and reality are clearly two very different things. The first one happens only in the mind, where mental gymnastics can make anything true. The other is something that exists outside of the mind and is hard to control. When you mix up what you think and what is true, you reject the Enlightenment and go back to the Middle Ages.

Perception is not reality, but it can become a person's reality (there is a difference) because perception has a strong effect on how we see real

Think about it like this. Perception is like a lens that shows us how things really are. Our perceptions affect how we pay attention to, think about, remember, interpret, understand, decide, synthesize, and act on reality. When we do this, we tend to think that how we see the world is a good representation of how it really is. It's not, though. The problem is that our genetic predispositions, past experiences, prior knowledge, emotions, preconceived ideas, self-interest, and cognitive distortions often distort the way we see things in the first place.

What’s wrong with perception diverging from reality?

What if I see the world in a way that doesn't match reality?

As with most things in life, answering this question requires a nuanced answer based on degree, not kind. For example, there is a theory in psychology about what are called "positive illusions." This is when a person has a slightly inflated view of his or her own abilities, which can be good for the person's mind and life (e.g., gives hope, enhances persistence).

But when a mild illusion turns into a delusion, it can be a problem if the person's perceptions are too different from reality (e.g., set unattainable goals, lack of preparation for a difficult task). In fact, a big difference between what people think and what is true can make them unable to do anything at all (severe mental illness is an example).

THE ULTIMATE SOLUTION

How to make sure that our own and other people's ideas are close to the truth is a problem we all have to deal with.

We need this alignment to live in the real world, agree with other people, and keep the personal, governmental, and social structures that make life as we know it possible. Here are some things to remember:

1. Don't assume that what you think is true (just your reality).

2. Consider how other people feel (they may be right).

3. Don't hold on to your ideas too tightly, because they might be wrong (admitting it takes courage).

4. Recognize the flaws in yourself that might make you see things differently (seeing them will better ground your perceptions in reality rather than the other way around).

5. Test your ideas (do they hold up when you look at them through the lens of reality?).

6. Look for confirmation from experts and other trustworthy people. Don't just ask your friends, because they probably think the same way you do.

7. Be willing to change your mind if the majority of evidence tells you to (rigidity of mind is far worse than being wrong).

Conclusion

The next time someone tries to defend something that can't be defended by saying "but perception is reality," you should stand up and tell them that it might be their perception, but it is not reality.