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! :)