Selective perception is based on the natural mechanism by which the human brain looks for patterns in its environment. Because of its selective nature, people are more likely to perceive what can be fitted into a pattern. Selectivity of perception acquires clinical relevance, for example, in the context of depression.
What is selective perception?
Selective perception is based on the natural mechanism by which the human brain looks for patterns in its environment. The human brain works with patterns. In evolutionary biology, the human ability to recognize patterns has contributed significantly to survival. Through mechanisms of pattern recognition, the brain has made the environment more predictable and thus less dangerous. The search for patterns is still a fundamental mechanism of the human brain and is reflected in processes such as perception. Selective perception corresponds to a psychological phenomenon that allows only certain aspects of the environment to enter consciousness. If all aspects of a situation were to enter consciousness, there would be chaos. The brain could not work effectively with the abundance of information and is therefore dependent on permanently blocking out stimuli. Percepts (what is perceived) are therefore not reality, but only a subjective partial impression of it. Certain sensory stimuli are emphasized during perception. Perception thus consists of priming, framing and many similar effects. Thus, the human brain searches for patterns in the environment, recognizes these patterns and emphasizes them. For this reason, people are more likely to perceive what corresponds to a particular pattern. Stimuli from the perceptual process are more likely to be emphasized by the brain if they can be embedded in a pattern. Selective perception thus corresponds to the unconscious and automatic search for patterns that the human brain is permanently engaged in.
Function and task
People, for example, have been shown to be more likely to hear the arguments that support their own position in a discussion. They have been shown to be more likely to see the things that are familiar to them from their own environment. Human perception works with various filters as a protection against stimulus overload. These filters correspond to a large extent to one’s own interests, values, opinions and one’s own experiences with the world. This principle of selective perception is due to the brain’s pattern search. The selection of all perceived sensory impressions is shaped by experiences and expectations due to this pattern search. For example, someone who reads an article about spelling will automatically pay more attention to the correctness of spelling in this article. Someone walking through town with a bad opinion of people will be more likely to notice the one incident that confirms that opinion and tune out the dozens of incidents contrary to that opinion. Someone who has just bought a Smart car suddenly sees Smarts everywhere in traffic. Someone who has just had a child hears all the more children screaming in everyday life. Perception is always selective. For this reason, no two different people perceive a situation in the same way under any circumstances. Their past history determined what they take in from a situation in an emphasized way. Filtering sensory stimuli is a survival requirement for all living beings. More stimuli are constantly flowing into an individual than the sensory cells could absorb and transmit to the central nervous system. Most stimulus filters are situational. Perception is always contextual for this reason. Stimulus filters such as interests are less situational, but still help in perceiving what is relevant. Stimulus filtering is used to classify sensory impressions. This classification already starts in the sensory organ and continues in the central nervous system as selective perception. The basis of selective perception is a certain need, for example hunger. A person with hunger is presented with bakeries and economies on a silver platter through selective perception, since hunger can be brought to satisfaction there according to experience.
Diseases and ailments
Basically, selective perception is not pathological, but is one of the natural filters of reality and is thus a normal reference to reality. However, selective perception can certainly take on pathological forms and promote diseases. Especially mental illnesses are often caused by selective perception disorders.For example, a traumatic incident in the past can lead to the person concerned having an extremely negative image of his fellow human beings and hearing only negative things in their statements. Such perceptual disorders play a role, for example, in illnesses such as depression or eating disorders. Depressed people perceive through black glasses. Culturally and socially conditioned habits of thought are also a major filter and affect perception by leading to a selection from all perceptible stimuli. Predominantly, what fits into the thinking pattern is perceived. If the individual adopts thought patterns unchecked, his ability to perceive is severely limited and can also thus promote mental illnesses, for example if the thought patterns learned as correct do not correspond to one’s own felt truth. It is not only filters that are set too narrowly that can impair mental well-being. Filters that are too open also play a role in mental illness. In many psychoses, the perceptual filters no longer function. Those affected are thin-skinned and no longer able to separate the inner and outer worlds. Patients often perceive inner conflicts as manifestations in the outside world, and they are defenseless in the face of the external. Perceptual disturbances or distortions play a role in almost every mental illness. For this reason, selective perception becomes clinically highly relevant in the field of psychology.
