How Perception Works
As I sit across the table from my friend Janet, my attention shifts rapidly from her face to the pattern in her shirt, from the painting on the wall behind her to the floral arrangement on the table and back to Janet’s face. Although it seems that I am seeing all these things simultaneously, that is an illusion created by my brain. Objective viewing requires more neural processing power than we possess.
My darting eyes are moving three times every second. With each shift of my focus, I clearly see about 1% of my surroundings while my brain fills in the missing bits much like the Content-Aware Fill feature in Photoshop, which replaces a distracting element (such as a stalk of seagrass) with information sampled from nearby pixels.
My brain relies on what it just saw plus assumptions based on past experiences to fabricate a complete image of my surroundings. With my eyes focused on Janet’s face, for example, my brain continues to show me that there are flowers on the table and a painting above her head because it remembers seeing those objects earlier.
This fill-in-the-blank capability is one way our brain compensates for the blindspot resulting from a lack of photoreceptors where the optic nerve connects to the retina. There are drawbacks, though. We can overlook or imagine objects depending on what our brain expects to see.
Since our brain can't pay attention to everything, it prioritizes incoming data using selection criteria that scientists are still decoding. Researchers estimate that as much as 90% of the data collected by our eyes is not processed by the brain. Inattentional blindness refers to our ability to look right at something (like an approaching vehicle) and not register its presence.
Our Mood Affects How We See
How we are feeling emotionally affects how we see our surroundings. Distances appear farther and hills seem steeper when we are fatigued. In a relaxed state our eyes are continually scanning the scene around us while stress constrains our field of view and heightens our eyes' sensitivity to high contrast objects. Although Janet and I are dining together at the same table, engaged in mutual conversation, we are each having a different personal experience based on our respective focus, assumptions and mood.
Our Window to the World
The mechanics of eyesight are a metaphor for how we view the world. In the context of a current event there are too many details to absorb so we choose where to place our focus and extrapolate meaning based on our beliefs, emotions and past experiences. We fill our blind spots with our best guess as to what belongs there. Information that doesn’t fit with our interpretation is subconsciously ignored like an errant puzzle piece.
When we feel safe we tend to adopt an expansive view. We are more discerning and better able to consider an issue from various angles. Anxiety or sadness narrow our focus bringing to mind the expression “can’t see the forest for the trees.” When fear predominates we will see evidence of threats everywhere while ignoring signs that our insecurity is misguided.
We Create Our Own Reality
Our tendency toward misperception is not a character flaw to overcome; it is simply how we make meaning of a complicated world of overwhelming input. Accepting that we are the architects of our reality frees us to choose where to direct our focus. We can ask ourselves how emotions may be shaping our perception. Are we too focused on the details of just one tree?
When we accept the malleability of our perceptions, it empowers us to pursue solutions instead of dwelling on problems. We can move forward from a place of inspiration instead of fear, trading victimhood for the understanding that we are indeed the masters of our reality.
Seeing Clearly
We clearly see about 1% of the scene in front of us. Continually shifting our focus enables us to collect the data we need to envision the full scene.
Mind the Blindspot
Try this mind-blowing exercise that reveals how our brain compensates for our blindspot due to lack of photoreceptors where the optic nerve connects to the retina.
Subscribe to my FREE resources at IntendWell.US
Comments