“We perceive the world not as it is, but as it is useful for us to perceive it”

I think we can all agree that the way you or I view the world is different from, a sheep, for example, might view it. It’s useful for us to differentiate between human faces, but all sheep look the same to me. To a sheep, all sheep look unique and humans look the same.

What we don’t realize, however, is that the way I perceive the world is substantially different from your perception. Why? Because the way an individual experiences an environment is a mixture between sensation and perception. Sensation is the raw sensory stimuli sensory receptors and the nervous system detect from our surroundings. Perception is the process where the brain organizes and interprets that stimuli. Since each brain is unique, each person’s perception is also unique. Every individual has a different perceptual set, or mental predisposition, that influences his/her perceptions. A perceptual set may be influenced by experiences, emotions, expectations, context, or motivation. Let me give you a few examples.

Emotions:
Your emotions color your perceptions. For example, class seems longer when you’re bored. In a scientific experiment, people reported a hill as seeming steeper after hearing sad music.

Motivation:
Try to see a sea animal in this drawing.

Did you see a seal? It’s actually an ambiguous drawing, and can be viewed as a horse, but since I motivated you to see a sea animal, I altered your perception and you saw it as a seal.

Context:
The simple McDonald’s logo on a bag of french fires or the Starbucks logo on a cup of coffee itself could heighten your perception of the taste. It’s possible that Starbucks coffee really isn’t any better, but the context effect of the logo makes us perceive it as such.

So if no two people, or animals, perceive the same environment the same way, what is reality? Is there such a thing?