Perception is defined as experiences resulting from stimulation of the senses (Goldstein, 2015, p. 52) or the ability to see, hear or become aware of something through the senses. But if most people have access to their five senses, how is it possible for everyone to see, hear or smell the same objects/atmospheres, but still discern something completely different? It all has to do with perception, or our interpretation of how we see the world. Our experiences allow us to understand situations differently, which in some way changes our “reality”. Let’s explore some examples.
I’ve known my husband for almost eight years, we’ve been married for almost six, and the entire time we’ve known each other he’s worked third shift. At the same time, I’ve always worked first shift, so our realities in regards to time have always been so different. Eleven o’clock in the evening is late to me because I’ve been up all day while he sleeps in preparation for his overnight shift. That same eleven o’clock in the evening is early to him since he just started his shift. Notice that the same time of day is perceived differently based on our experiences. So when we spend time together, someone always has to compromise their reality in order to fit into the other person’s reality/norm. I’ll either have to stay up “late” or he’ll have to wake up “early”. Our own personal circumstances plays a very important role in how we perceive time.
Another example of how our experiences affect our perception allows us take a look at a phenomenon known as “top-down processing”. Top-down processing using prior knowledge to influence our perception, or uses what we’ve already experienced to dictate how we feel or perceive a thing.
A personal experience of mine would be giving birth. I have a three year old daughter and a two month old son. Throughout my pregnancy with my daughter, I had no personal encounter with giving birth so although I had personal testimonies from other people, I didn’t have my own experience. However, after having gone through labor with my daughter, I was more aware of and had formed my own perception of what labor could be like when it came time to give birth to my son. During labor with my daughter, my pain medication started to wear off while I was in the “pushing phase”, so I knew from experience that the epidural provide pain relief. However, the option for pain relief was off the table during labor with my son because he came too quickly. I can remember the doctor telling me that it was time to push and there was no time for the anesthesiologist to come and administered the epidural. I panicked based on what I felt at the end of my labor with my daughter and perceived that I wouldn’t be able to deliver my son natural.
One final example I’d like to take a look at is quite simple and something we all can relate to. We’ve all received a text message or an email that looked something like this: “Go0d M0rning” or “C U L8tr” or maybe even “my shirt is wrt”. Even through those typos, it is easy to understand what the sender actually intended. There are even times when someone sends a message and we don’t even notice the typo because our brains automatically saw the correct word/spelling there.These are all examples of “top-down processing.
Goldstein, E.B. (2015). Cognitive Psychology: Connecting Mind, Research, and Everyday Experience, 4th Edition. Cengage Learning.
Angela, your post was fantastic and aught my attention in so many ways. The way you described the top-down process with you and your husbands time with him working the night shift was great. With the top-down process being interpretation of incoming information based on prior knowledge, experiences, and expectations and having worked overnights myself and can tell you that the perception of a normal day for someone else is totally perceived differently by the one who works overnight and our mind body and other sensory interprets normal daytime hours as off and unusual.
Angela, I thought your post on you and your husband’s perception of time and the top-down processing examples you provided were great. With the birth of your daughter, you had no preconceived notions of how your birth would go. Of course, you had others recollections of their birth stories but none that could be applied to you until that time came along. After the birth of your daughter, you now had the experience of birth and now had a perception of what your next birth with your son would be like. Oddly enough, the perception was shattered because they were not similar, as your son came too fast. Its interesting, because typically a birth will be similar to the first, like how if you have a fast and early birth your next will be the same. So I understand the belief that was formed after the initial experience and the shock of your perception being wrong.
Your last example, though brief, I thought was a fantastic example of top-down processing. When we text, its so easy to make mistakes in our words or phrasing. When we then read those back we form a general idea of the word and that then quickly, and without too much thought, becomes a specific word of phrase that we are familiar with. With texting we usually use quick phrases or misspelled words to write faster, so most words like LOL, C U L8R and ILY are easily interpreted because of our prior knowledge. Just as this passage tells us about top-down processing, “Throughout our lifetime we construct schemas, which consist of past experiences, prior knowledge, emotions, and expectations, and then use these schemas to form hypotheses upon the arrival of new information.” (Rousay, 2021). The use of prior knowledge on words, phrases, experiences are all part of our perception. Overall great job using multiple experiences and examples to explain these topics.
Rousay, V. (2021, January 21). Top-down processing. Top-Down Processing | Simply Psychology. Retrieved October 10, 2021, from https://www.simplypsychology.org/top-down-processing.html.