2. WE CRITICALLY THINK ABOUT OUR PERSONAL REALITIES, NOT WHAT
IS REALLY THERE. To become better thinkers we need to understand
how we create our own realities. Why are our realities different
than the realities of the people around us? Why is it we vote one
way while our neighbors vote another?
3. PERCEPTION If we understand the perception process and our
individual bias's and the influence of stasis, we can learn to be a
better critical thinker. Perception is defined as the way you think
about or understand someone or something; the ability to understand
or notice something easily; the way that you notice or understand
something using one of your senses Stasis is defined as a state or
condition in which things do not change, move, or progress; a
comfort zone
4. OVERVIEW OF PERCEPTION
5. KEY POINTS IN THE PERCEPTION PROCESS Reality and Environment
are different. Here are four terms to understand the difference.
Cognitions: Are the smallest units of awareness. Also known as
"stimulli." These are picked up by our five senses. They are what
stimulates our eyes, ears, nose, touch and taste. Environment: What
is really around us. The source of cognitions. When you listen to
your ipod. The ipod is your environment. Your cognitions come from
your ipod. You are touching the volume button, viewing the screen
and listening to sounds coming from it. Reality: Your mental
interpretation of your environment. Based on cognitions we receive
and interpret, we create a picture in our mind of the environment.
If your grooving to the music your reality of your ipod is
positive. If your having problems it and your having trouble
playing what you want to hear, then the reality of your ipod is
negative. Perception: Is the process we experience that creates a
reality from an environment. Its how we take the cognitions of an
environment and develop an interpretation in our head called a
reality. Perception isnt the final product, that is the reality.
Perception was the process we used to create that reality.
6. THERE ARE NO CLONES HERE No two people have identical
realities. We are all unique and process our environment
differently than anyone else. So we all have a slightly different
interpretation of the environment. Have you ever looked at your
friend's car and thought, "That car is ugly?" Both of you are
looking at the same environment. But your friend sees that car like
its a Ferrari, while you see the car and wonder "What is wrong with
my friend?"
7. ILLUSION Reality is not real, it is an illusion. The
realities we create are not real, the environment is real. The
realities we create are just figments of our imagination based on
the cognitions of our environment. Cognitions/stimuli = Environment
= Realities = Perception
8. WHAT WE ARGUE We argue realities, not environments. We don't
argue what is actually there in our environment, instead we argue
the individual pictures we have created in our heads about that
environment. We argue what and how we see perceive things.
9. PERCEPTION PROCESS There are three stages to the perception
process. Select: We select the and filter the cognitions we use.
Sort: We sort the ones weve chosen to build our experience.
Interpret: We then interpret the information to use it.