Dreams...
It may be a dream afraid of waking up, or it may be a dream coming to realization in the next morning.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

We See What We Want to See

So, yesterday I was having a chat with my neighbor. But first, let me describe you how he is. He is energetic, very well-traveled, is now considering getting married, about to finish his masters, and quite intelligent. He has black hair, and quite a thick beard, and he is from Maldives. He has a small figure and likes to laugh. When I first met him when I just registered for a room beside his, I had this feeling that he was in his 20's. Because of that presumption, he looked young, added with the young-related characteristics that I described above. But yesterday, when we were talking about passport, I was taken aback when he finally revealed his age after all this while, "I am actually 34..."

I couldn't be more surprised. Not at my false presumption, but at how quickly his face and stature changed before my eyes. Right after he told me that, I suddenly could see his 34-year-old skin, some of his gray hair, and he suddenly talked like his age. I couldn't unsee what I saw last night and the young impression that I had on him earlier was gone forever. So, I thought, it's amazing how we can trick our brain into seeing what we want to see.

This is the difference between sensation and perception. Sensation is registering the data that you get from your environment into your senses. Perception is more of a brain's work - it is to translate those data into a more meaningful form. So, those descriptions I mentioned above, those are the data of this guy registering into my eyes, I saw that. But to believe that he was in his 20's, thus making him look younger because of my belief, that's perception.

When I took Intro to Psych in my bachelor's, our class did not make Sensation and Perception as part of our reading. But the little reading I did when I was teaching it in one university, made it worthwhile to know this basic thing that happens to all of us. How amazing Psychology is?

5 comments:

Ilyah said...

Taufik! Hebat weh, ko see neighbour ko transform right before your eyes! Hehehe. Lately, aku cam banyak pikir sal ko weh. Ko delete facebook ko eh? How's PhD treating you?

Unknown said...

Ohh, Ilyah!! Haah, aku dh delete, mcm useless la bg aku... Mula2 sakit gak sbb dah biasa, pastu dah biasa dh... Ko apa khabar? Thanks sbb ingat, actually bru 2 hari lepas aku teringat ko sbb aku teringt ko nkeje kat sunway... PHD ok je, actually it's one of the reasons gak la... ko plak?

Ilyah said...

Ya Allah! Aku tak perasan ko ada comment balik! Haha! Aku alhamdulillah OK je. Kenapa dgn aku dan Sunway? Ko ada datang sini ke? Facebook ganggu PhD ke? Hehe.. Weh apa number hp ko skrg?

Unknown said...

Haah, FB agak mengganggu la...huhu...poyo je kan aku? Takla, sebab aku suke g sana, so bile teringat Sunway/Subang, teringat ko. bg email ko, aku email ko no aku...takkan nak tayang kat sini...huhu

Ilyah said...

Taufik, ni e-mail aku: ilyah_86@yahoo.com. E-mail eh nanti! :)