Perception and Communication

1. Perception and Communication Lecture by Derek R. Lane Adapted from Alan D. DeSantis January 26, 2005

3. Perception I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but, I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.

4. Preview • Perception defined • Influences of perception • Four stages of perception • Pitfalls to accurate perception

5. Perception Defined • The process by which we become aware of objects and events in the external world. • The process of making sense of the world around us. • Many people ignore the fact that all of us are different and that these differences equip us to view the world from our very own vantage points. Usually we spend more energy defending our own position than understanding others. Where does the triangle begin?

6. Influences on Perception • Physiological (biological, neurological) Influences • Senses, age, health, fatigue, hunger, biological cycles • Social Influences • Cultural Differences • Nonverbal behaviors, odors, speech, silence, space • Social Roles • Sex roles, gender roles, occupational roles • Self-Concept • Self-esteem, locus of control, attribution (attaching meaning to behavior)

7. Perception • Perception is the process of making sense of the world around us • Also called informational or cognitive processing • Perception is influenced by two factors: • Biological/Neurological—How we are hardwired • Universal to all humans • Social—The different social influences in our lives • Differs in all humans (men vs. women; US vs. Japan; 12th vs. 21st Century) • It is important we understand this process if we are to become smart, competent communicators • It is the “thing” that happens before we even open our mouths • There are four stages of perception • (if we could slow it down for examination)

8. Stage 1: Selection • Life is a process of selecting information/data • We are confronted with millions of pieces of stimuli each day (1,500 advertisements alone) • Factors That Influence Our Selection • A. Interest (College Basketball, Movies, Music) • B. Need (lectures, traffic lights, buying 1st car) • C. Aesthetics (noise, movement, color) • What advertisers, marketers, & designers do • D. Biology (sensation seeking, ADHD, circadian rhythms) • Sesame St. Syndrome • Educators competing with the media—and losing Bad Elmo

13. Stage 2: Organization • To eliminate the chaos of life (entropy) and help make sense of the world, we simplify and reduce our world • We put our “selected” data in cognitive “folders” • Also called: Schematas or Cognitive Frameworks • Three Principles of Organization: • A) Binary Opposition (all things in pairs) • male/female, short/tall, white/black, good/bad • B) Already formed social categories • 101 students, sorority sisters, UK basketball players, Italians • C) We also organize by similarities • size (big buildings), color (things that are purple), space (things from Hawaii), smell (things that make us hungry), function (computer, phone, TV, DVD, VCR, CD player, pager, palm) Halloween Labs

18. How many Fs?

28. A Duck . . . Or a Rabbit?

30. Stage 3Interpretation/Comprehension • Next, we have to Evaluate the data in our folders • Larger files (more complete and accurate) • Smaller files (simplistic and underdeveloped) • Our Comfort Zone: • Not Comfortable with New or Small Folders • We like our old, Big Folders (Basketball) and avoid our small, underdeveloped folders (Sra Lanka) • College Forces Us To Make New Folders • Researchers now think that this is the reason for racism and prejudice • All that we know about Italians we have learned from Mafia Movies, Dr. DeSantis, and the Olive Garden. Wonder Woman

32. Young, or old?

33. Young, or old?

34. Native American . . . Or Eskimo?

35. Which line is longer? A B

36. Perfect Circle?

37. 1 3 4 5 2

38. 1 3 4 5 2

43. Count the black dots . . .

48. Ladder up… or down?

49. Which way is water flowing?