Chapter 3 perception communication (pp)

1. Perception
Perception is the process by which an organism
attains awareness or understanding of its
environment by organizing and interpreting
sensory information.
(From Wikipedia)

2. 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.

3. Perception in Communication

4. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. Some sample visual perception

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. Who would you like to be your girlfriend ?

13. 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.

14. 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.

15. 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.

16. 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.

17. 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.

18. 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

19. 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.

20. 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.

21. 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 .

22. Influences on Perception
Everyone does not perceive situations and
people in the same way.
Physiology; we differ in our sensory abilities and
physiologies.
We tend to perceive more negatively when tired.
Medical conditions; drugs that affect our thinking.
Age; the older we are, the richer our perspective
for perceiving life and people.
Culture; beliefs, values, understandings, and
practices.

23. Influences on Perception
Social roles; the training we receive to fulfill a role and the
actual demands of the role.
Editor thinks about layout, and design features.
Law graduates tend to be analytical, argumentative and
logical.
Physicians are trained to observe physical symptoms.
Cognitive abilities; how elaborately we think about
situations and people and our personal knowledge of
others.
Self; how we perceive people reflects as much about us
and our experiences as about those people.

24. Guidelines for Improving
Perception and Communication
Recognize that all perceptions are partial and
subjective.
Avoid mindreading – one of the behaviours that
contribute to conflict.
Check perceptions with others.
Distinguish between facts and inferences.
Guard against the self serving bias.