FINAL REPORT POST

Being able to perceive our environment is a survival tool.  My dad always taught me to run against the traffic and now with everything that I learned, it makes perfect sense.  Being able to see the vehicle coming gives you an advantage. Since we combine our senses together, since we can see the vehicle coming it would most likely strengthen our sense to hear the vehicle coming which in fact gives us a BETTER advantage. Perception is filled with ideas that we have never even put forth an understanding for. We take our senses for granted every single day because we do not begin to understand their processes or meaning. Each chapter in the textbook gives the onlooker a great insight in our capabilities in being able to perceive. For example, chapter three discusses the processes that enables us to see. Though we view things on a daily basis, I bet we never sat down to think to ourselves "Hey, ya know, ' light reflected from objects in the environment enters the eye through the pupil and is focused by the cornea and lens to form sharp images of the objects on the retina which contains receptors for vision' (Goldstein,44) and that is why I can see!!!" Something as simple as understanding our body and understanding the processes that occur, can sharpen our perceptual abilities and everyday tactics. Speaking specifically, if I were to want to trick someone with the idea of inattentional blindness, I know that all I have to do is keep them focused on a major stimuli, and they won't pick up what I don't want them to perceive! For example, if we are all at a party and my boyfriend doesn't like when I drink, all I have to do is tell him to go play a competitive game of beer pong, and most likely I could be standing across the table drinking and he wouldn't even notice! This course can teach a lot about our everyday life in perception. After all, what is the sense in not having any senses? Without our senses, we cannot perceive! Without perceiving we cannot live!



I learned a lot in this class. Going into the psychology field I need to have a good understanding of perception. I need to know how I perceive things and how others may perceive things since we all see things differently. This class has handed me various tools that I can use when working in the field that I do. Working as a behavioral assistant my job is to go into families homes and analyze their child or children's behavior. It may sound simple, but my job is to basically perceive my surroundings and give a judgement based off of what I see and hear. I have to observe the families household to get a feel for what the issue is in the family. Not only do I have to have a grasp on my own perception, but I also have to have a grasp on the parent and child's perception and understand their ways of looking at things. All families are different and perceive their situations differently. My job is to take that into consideration when helping them. I have posted in an earlier mini post about the significant role that mirror neurons play when I work with a family. When the family perceives me as calm, cool, and collective, they are more likely to be relaxed and perform to their best ability. It is almost like hypnotizing them to act accordingly when I am in the household. After-all, if a family member were to get out of hand, I have to know what to do and how to de-escalate the situation, and that usually starts with my body language and the tone that I speak in. Once the family perceives that I am calm and relaxed, they are more likely to become relaxed also. It is all about senses. Also, I know that when talking to a family I am more likely to understand what they are saying if I am looking directly at them. Not only is it professional to look at someone when they are speaking, but it gives me a chance to not miss an important remark when they are giving me information about the issues that arise. On the other hand, it is also important for me to look at them when I am speaking. From this class, I know that they are most likely to understand what I am saying if I am looking directly at them and speaking clear enough for them to hear ( it also depends if they are looking at me when I am talking, which in most cases they do not).

Over all this class has done a lot for me and my career. Typically, most people do not understand the processes that occur in our brain to aid in perception, but reading the textbook and learning the information will hopefully benefit me in the long run. After all, my "perceptual processes" helped me a lot in aiding me in acquiring all this knowledge! :)

Behavioral Assistants Really Cool Tool

I work as a behavioral assistant for a company based out of Hammonton. My job is to correct youth’s behavior ranging from ages 4 to 18. I work with children and adolescence with behavior issues that come from all points of the spectrum. These behaviors could be things such as anxiety, depression, ADHD, learning disorders, kids who become physical with others, or kids who need to be taught life skills for their own good. Many people propose that putting myself in a situation like this may become dangerous or perhaps nerve wrecking when faced with danger. Since I am in these families houses, I need to know what I am doing at every given moment just in case a kid were to lash out at me. You have to keep in mind that these are kids with behavioral issues and are capable to do anything at any given time. One of the most important tools that I can use when faced with a difficult or hostile situation, is not only being able to diffuse the situation, but also recognizing the significance in mirror neurons. These neurons can be defined as “ neurons in the premotor area of the monkey’s cortex that responds when the monkey grasps an object and also when the monkey observes someone else (another monkey or the experimenter) grasping the object” (Goldstein, 168).  In simpler terms, this gives meaning to the saying “monkey see, monkey do”.  When research was done on the monkey, the same brain activity was recorded for when the monkey was completing a task as well as when the monkey was watching someone else complete the same task. By this point someone may wonder what this has to do with my job as a behavioral assistant. My answer to that is exactly what I said before “monkey see, monkey do”. When I come to a situation when a family member or child is becoming aggressive, my best bet is to remain considerably calm, cool, and collective. I do not show any aggression or aggravation because that will fuse the situation. When I remain calm, it sets the stage for how everyone else should act and “mirror” my demeanor. “Consider what is happening when a mirror neuron fires in response to seeing someone else perform an action. This firing provides information about the characteristics of the action because the neuron’s response is watching someone else perform the action is the same as the response that occurs when the observer performs the action” (168).  Mirror neurons do not contribute to the emotional aspect of the situation, but it seems to make a difference with body language. If I am sitting a certain way and talking to my client’s, my client’s will be most likely to change their seating position to mine or something similar. “The function of the mirror neurons might be to help understand another person’s actions and react appropriately to them (Rizzolatti & Arbib,1998). This not only works with dealing with frustrated and children that may be potentially violent, but this can work with anyone, boyfriend, girlfriend, angry mother in law, or even brothers and sisters. The key to making a positive difference in a disagreement, is adjusting your body language, body position (not crossing your arms or legs, not keeping your shoulders square, relatively keeping your body open so it may seem as though your open to the person’s ideas and opinions), and remaining calm. Great tip to practice and use!

Perceptual Process

To perceive any object, human, or thing is a subjective gift that gives way to our individuality. From identifying colors to recognizing different shapes we may all have different opinions about somethings presentation. For example, if Professor Berg is wearing a coral colored tie, some may say his tie is pink, others may say its red, some may even say its orange but who is right? The formal answer is that nobody would be right because we all see things from our subjective point of views. Though it may sound a bit egocentric, it only makes sense when we look at the perceptual process. First, we must identify what the perceptual process stands for, it is "a sequence of processes that work together to determine our experience of and reaction to stimuli in the environment". Even though our opinions and reactions seem like they happens within seconds, there is more going on then we think. We may come to a conclusion that Professor Berg's tie is orange, but what got us to draw that conclusion? The answer could be that everyone is color blind, but that wouldn't be the appropriate approach! We start off by recognizing that Professor Berg's tie is our attended stimulus, that is what we are focused on at the moment. Once we are focusing on his tie, we may already draw a conclusion to what the object actually is (a tie) and its color (whatever color each individual perceives it to be). This is then transformed to an "image" in which becomes a representation of a "tie". After identifying the image, it begins to get more interesting by involving the brain signals this object sends through our body called ELECTRICITY. As the textbook states " one of the central principles of perception is that everything we perceive is based on electrical signals in our nervous system". Beginning in this electrical process is transduction. Transduction is important in this process because without it, we would not perceive anything. Transduction is when the light reflected off of Mr. Berg's tie is transformed into electrical signals in our receptors. After this, transmission occurs. This process makes sense, because this is when the electrical signals activate neurons that send this "image" up to the brain. As the textbook states " transmission is crucial because if the signals are not sent up to the brain, nothing will be perceived. Next, the brain will undergo "processing". This when the image of Professor Berg's tie is perceived just as that, Professor Berg's tie. Another important aspect is being able to RECOGNIZE the object. This is when we place an object into a category that gives it meaning. For example, growing up and putting this long piece of colored material with a point at the bottom into the category of a "tie, gave it meaning which is why we identify objects that look like a TIE as a TIE. If we grew up thinking that a long piece of colored material with a point at the bottom was an apple, then we would categorize it as an "apple".  Being able to recognize objects is an important part of everyday life. Top-Processing is crucial for this because it is knowledge based.  This comes into play when we recognize objects from prior experience and knowledge! The Perceptual Process is truly remarkable. Many people do not realize the intense process that our minds go through to perceive different objects. One of the most important aspects of this process is being able to recognize objects because without being able to recognize we won't be able to categorize which would ultimately make it hard to perceive!

http://psychology.about.com/od/sensationandperception/ss/perceptproc_2.htm
Understanding the Perceptual Process