Perception and Attention
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Perception and Attention 3
Perception
Perception is a set of processes that human uses to make sense of varying stimuli that the individual is presented with. Interpretation of different sensations, therefore, determines one's perception. The set of perception process is unconscious and starts when an individual is presented with a stimulus and ends when the individual interprets the stimulus. We refer to perception as a constructed process because it begins with one's sensory experience of the environment, which requires the individual to recognize the surrounding stimulus presented through the five common senses that receive information and transmit it to the brain. Perception of the same stimuli differs across people because different people have different brain structure, culture, and the way they were brought up in different environments.
Attention
Attention is selective because it targets a particular stimulus in the surrounding. The fact that attention focuses on an object within a limited period renders it a limited resource. The significance of selective attention is to enable an individual to ignore less important details. This gives way for the individual to concentrate on what is most important. Attention typically select different types of information such as sustained information that require no distraction for a long period, selective information, which is selected from multiple stimuli while the rest are tuned out, alternative information, which one can switch focus back and forth to match various cognitive demands and finally, divided information where one can concentrate on more than one stimulus simultaneously.
Working memory
Working memory is a short-term memory with a limited capacity that allows one to hold information for a short period. It helps one to gain immediate consciousness. During the short period the working memory holds the information, perception takes place. Working memory helps in quick reasoning when stimuli are presented in one's environment. It also enables one to decide and chose on a particular behavior in response to the stimulus.
False memory
A false memory is an instance where an individual remembers a thing that never happened. However, false memory may also include one differently recalling something that happened from the way it occurred. False memory is similar to real memory when both refer to an event that indeed happened. In such a case the details of the false memory are distorted. The two types of memory can be different if in the case of the false memory the event that the individual recalls never happened.