Perception and Perception Filters

Perception

We can only use information in our communication that we have also received. This is only possible with open senses. If our perception is blocked, our communication cannot flow.

Four Simple Facts About Our Perception

(taken from an introductory lecture in Psychological Physiology)

How Our Perception Works

(taken from "The Reality of NLP" by Alexa Mohl)

In school, we were taught that the eye works like a camera. The light rays that emanate from the objects in our environment create sharp images of the objects on the retina at the back of our eyes. From this, it was concluded that we all have the same view, namely the surrounding reality, in front of us.

This concept of the process of seeing, or visual perception, is a misconception. Seeing does not work like a camera. The surrounding reality does not create images in our eyes that are then sent to the brain. Therefore, we cannot conclude that we all see the same thing and share the surrounding reality.

The idea that something is amiss could have been realized even in school. I remember asking why we see things upright. If seeing worked like a camera, the images we see would be upside down. And I recall the teacher’s brief response: "The optic nerve flips it!"

What we learned in school no longer aligns with the results of recent neurophysiological research. Seeing does not work like a camera. It’s not that images are formed on the retina from the surrounding reality and sent to the brain:

What we make pictures of reaches our eyes as physical waves. In the retinal cells, chemical processes occur when these light waves stimulate them, which then send electrical impulses into the central nervous system. Our brain processes these impulses into internal images. Just like seeing, the other processes of perception occur: environmental influences stimulate our sense organs, which, in turn, activate our brain. This yet-to-be-explored activity of our brain brings forth and determines what we call our world: images we see, sounds we hear, surfaces of things we feel, and what we smell and taste.

Perception Filters

We perceive the world through our five senses: we see, hear, feel, smell, and taste, and absorb an incredible amount of information. We also represent our sensory perception linguistically. We use expressions that refer to the visual, auditory, or kinesthetic sensory system.

Neurological Filters (Limitations of sensory perception through nerve cells):

There are also many physically measurable phenomena that we cannot perceive due to our neurology, such as certain sound frequencies and light waves that are of great importance to other living beings (e.g., dogs, bats, tomatoes). This means that our sensory perception is subject to physiological limitations. Certain information is not even captured by us at this stage.

Cultural and Social Filters (Limitations of perception through upbringing and the society in which one lives):

In addition, our perception is shaped by cultural and social patterns. The five senses of an Australian Aboriginal, for example, will certainly provide different information than those of a New Yorker. How many differences and associated terms for snow can we find? Three, four, five? Eskimos know and name over 20 different types of snow! In Congo, it is accepted to perceive ghosts and spirits – not in our society. In Congo, ghosts are real; in our society, they are "phantoms."

That means: Even with the same neurology, the perception of the world can be very different depending on the requirements and traditions of the surrounding environment.

Individual Filters (Limitations of your perceptions based on your personal experiences):

Similar to cultural filters, individual filters also work in a similar way. Based on personal experiences, we prioritize certain categories of information while neglecting others or perhaps not noticing them at all. A clear example of our ability to filter out the unwanted is the so-called "party effect." It is our ability to pick out a single sound from a noise background just because we are curious about its content. The murmuring and clinking of glasses from others are simply ignored.

Another example: While one person can associate different motorcycle sounds with individual brands and enjoys these sounds because they are a motorcycle fan, another person identifies the same acoustic phenomenon as noise pollution and can’t even distinguish differences due to the "noise." Other statements, such as "No one ever helps me" or "Everyone admires me," illustrate another variation of selective perception.

The Fundamental Processing Processes

Generalizing, Deletion, and Distortion

Above, we saw which framework conditions influence our perception and which factors affect the design of our "map of the world." Through our language, we are able to convey our perception to others. Our way of expressing ourselves not only reflects our worldview, but also largely the processes through which we have created our model of the world.

There are essentially three shaping processes through which we process our experience and then represent it linguistically: Generalizing, Deletion, and Distortion (fantasizing). These processes allow us to survive, grow, learn, understand, and experience the richness that the world has to offer. On the other hand, these same processes can lead to problems, as we mistakenly equate our selective perception of reality with the outer world itself.

Through generalization, we learn to exist in the world: For example, when we, as children, get burned by an iron, we generalize this experience to all hot objects that look similar. We don’t need to repeat the same experience with another iron because we have already learned the generalization of this experience.

An example of a limiting generalization is a typical dog phobia. The experience of being bitten by a dog once is generalized to all existing dogs, resulting in a significant impairment of daily mobility and general well-being.

The ability to delete allows us to focus only on the information that is important to us. Otherwise, we would be overwhelmed by a flood of stimuli that our consciousness could not process. So, someone can read a book while people around them are talking or the TV is running.

However, deletions are limiting when we erase or ignore useful experiences, as seen in the complaint "I get no recognition." In this statement, not only are the experiences in which the person was recognized absent, but also the actors of this non-recognition and what is not being recognized by them, and so on.

The third process through which we create our perception is distortion and fantasizing. Through these processes, we can reshape and recreate our experiences as we wish. Based on this ability, we are capable of turning dreams into reality, painting pictures, or writing novels.

The disadvantages of distortion appear in statements like: "I regret my decision." Here, a process - the decision-making process - has turned into an unchangeable event. The speaker takes away their control over ongoing processes by redefining them as an unchangeable fact.