I. Perception as a Process

1. Jerome Bruner: Perception is defined as the process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting information from our senses.
   
   
2. Selection involves focusing attention on certain sights, sounds, tastes, touches or smells. The degree to which particular aspects attract our attention is called salience. We notice what is important: (a) stimulating, (b) fits our goals, (c) deviates from our expectations.
   
   
3. Additional selection factors (Michael’s Sound Bite 3-1): Joseph DeVito adds: We also select (a) the simplest to observe, (b) something we need; (c) something that we are used to in our culture, (d) what repeats.

DISCUSSION STARTER 1: Think of a recent interpersonal encounter. What attracted your attention most about your conversational partner’s communication? Was it the person’s stimulating behavior? Important information he or she presented? Or perhaps something that surprised you?

1. Organizing involves several processes: punctuation (organizing what you selected in a chronological sequence) (continued in Michael’s Sound Bite).
   
   
2. Additional organizing factors (Michael’s Sound Bite 3-2): Joseph DeVito adds: We also organize by (a) prototypes (features and behaviors that signify a particular role or event as our environment teaches us); (b) personal constructs (features and behaviors that signify a particular role or event that we have established in our own individual experience), (c) stereotypes (simplified and overgeneralized perceptions of groups as having similar characteristics), (d) scripts (scenarios of our behavior in particular situations).
   
   

DISCUSSION STARTER 2: Recall a conflict in which you and a friend disagreedabout “who started it.” How did you punctuate the encounter? How did your friend punctuate it? If you both punctuated differently, how did those differences contribute to the conflict? If you could revisit the situation, what might you say or do differently to resolve the dispute?

1. We interpret by relating what we see to schemata that we either have experienced or have heard about.
   
   
2. Additional interpretation factors: (Michael’s Sound Bite 3-3): Joseph DeVito adds: Speed of interpretation depends on (a) how involved we are, (b) how satisfied we are, (c) what previous experience we have, (d) what presuppositions we have about the person’s behavior, (e) what expectations we have.
   
   

Joseph DeVito adds two more processes: remembering and recall, that he considers parts of the perception process.

1. Remembering: (Michael’s Sound Bite 3-4): Joseph DeVito adds: (a) we have different memory capacities, mostly remember what is salient for us; (b) our previous memories affect what we remember; (c) memory can be short-term and long-term; (d) remembering depends on categories; (e) remembering is easier when we learn gradually; (f) we remember better through our preferred perception channel, (g) we gradually forget what we remember; (h) new information overshadows previous information in the same category; (i) some memories can be false; (j) some memories are suppressed; (k) memory can be trained.
   
   
2. Recall: (Michael’s Sound Bite 3-5): Joseph DeVito adds: (a) we recall easier what is interesting to us in the long-term; (b) what we can immediately apply in pleasant activity; (c) what supports our values, (d) that fits well with categories, (e) that left an imprint.

II. Creating Explanations

1. We create explanations that fit with our schemata. They are called attributions, and they are answers to the “why” question.
   
   
2. Harold Kelly: Attributions can be internal (we say that the person acted a certain way because of their character), or external (their actions had to do with the situation).
   
   
3. Invalid attributions include: (a) fundamental attribution error, when we see others’ actions in terms of their character, and our own in terms of the situation; (b) related actor-observer effect, when by changing sides we immediately see a totally different perspective; (c) self-serving bias (success is ours; failure is because of them).

Дата добавления: 2015-10-30