The part of this chapter that I thought was interesting was
that of perceptual errors. It explained how our minds aren’t quite as accurate
or precise in collecting information as a say a camera or video recorder. They
actually filter out our perceptions and fill in missing information with our
expectations. The filling in of missing information with expectations is what
leads to perceptual errors. A good example would be the 1938 War of the Worlds
broadcast. The broadcast featured a play based on the novel and, when listeners
heard it, they actually believed the world was being invaded by aliens. Many
people panicked in the wake of the broadcast and claimed they could smell the
poisonous gas and feel the heat rays that had been mentioned. As they had no
true empirical evidence to back up what they believed, their minds filled in
the gaps with perceptual errors. I thought this was interesting because it
showed how our strong belief in something can overrule the reality in regards
to perception.
Perceptual errors are quite an interesting topic. I think that a big problem is that our minds tend to change our perception of things over time. For example, we could have seen the way that a plane flew 10 years ago and now we describe it to be completely different. Many times when I'm reading over my work after I write an essay or something, I'll skim over something that I've written wrong and automatically correct it in my head without even knowing it. So when I read the essay aloud, I won't actually catch the problem. Our beliefs and our opinions can definitely change our perception of things and even fill in the missing gaps and create an unwanted bias.
ReplyDelete