Editing Perception (section)

=== Effect of motivation and expectation ===
{{main|Set (psychology)}}A ''perceptual set'' (also called ''perceptual expectancy'' or simply ''set'') is a predisposition to perceive things in a certain way.<ref name="Weiten2008">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sILajOhJpOsC&pg=PT193|title=Psychology: Themes and Variations|last=Weiten|first=Wayne|date=17 December 2008|publisher=Cengage Learning|isbn=978-0-495-60197-5|page=193|access-date=24 March 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111109163032/http://books.google.com/books?id=sILajOhJpOsC&pg=PT193|archive-date=9 November 2011|url-status=live}}</ref> It is an example of how perception can be shaped by "top-down" processes such as drives and expectations.<ref name="CoonMitterer2008">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vw20LEaJe10C&pg=PA171|title=Introduction to Psychology: Gateways to Mind and Behavior|last1=Coon|first1=Dennis|last2=Mitterer|first2=John O.|date=29 December 2008|publisher=Cengage Learning|isbn=978-0-495-59911-1|pages=171–172|access-date=24 March 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111109162432/http://books.google.com/books?id=vw20LEaJe10C&pg=PA171|archive-date=9 November 2011|url-status=live}}</ref> Perceptual sets occur in all the different senses.<ref name="Sonderegger1998" /> They can be long term, such as a special sensitivity to hearing one's own name in a crowded room, or short-term, as in the ease with which hungry people notice the smell of food.<ref name="HardyHeyes1999">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fjPWqXi9WQsC&pg=PA24|title=Beginning Psychology|last1=Hardy|first1=Malcolm|last2=Heyes|first2=Steve|date=2 December 1999|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-832821-6|pages=24–27|access-date=24 March 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111109163023/http://books.google.com/books?id=fjPWqXi9WQsC&pg=PA24|archive-date=9 November 2011|url-status=live}}</ref> A simple demonstration of the effect involved very brief presentations of non-words such as "sael". Subjects who were told to expect words about animals read it as "seal", but others who were expecting boat-related words read it as "sail".<ref name="HardyHeyes1999" />

Sets can be created by [[motivation]] and so can result in people interpreting ambiguous figures so that they see what they want to see.<ref name="CoonMitterer2008" /> For instance, how someone perceives what unfolds during a sports game can be biased if they strongly support one of the teams.<ref name="BlockYuker2002">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uNMFiMQu8BMC&pg=PA173|title=Can You Believe Your Eyes?: Over 250 Illusions and Other Visual Oddities|last1=Block|first1=J. R.|last2=Yuker|first2=Harold E.|date=1 October 2002|publisher=Robson|isbn=978-1-86105-586-6|pages=173–174|access-date=24 March 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111109162334/http://books.google.com/books?id=uNMFiMQu8BMC&pg=PA173|archive-date=9 November 2011|url-status=live}}</ref> In one experiment, students were allocated to pleasant or unpleasant tasks by a computer. They were told that either a number or a letter would flash on the screen to say whether they were going to taste an orange juice drink or an unpleasant-tasting health drink. In fact, an ambiguous figure was flashed on screen, which could either be read as the letter B or the number 13. When the letters were associated with the pleasant task, subjects were more likely to perceive a letter B, and when letters were associated with the unpleasant task they tended to perceive a number 13.<ref name="Weiten2008" />

Perceptual set has been demonstrated in many social contexts. When someone has a reputation for being funny, an audience is more likely to find them amusing.<ref name="HardyHeyes1999" /> Individual's perceptual sets reflect their own personality traits. For example, people with an aggressive personality are quicker to correctly identify aggressive words or situations.<ref name="HardyHeyes1999" /> In general, perceptual speed as a mental ability is positively correlated with personality traits such as conscientiousness, emotional stability, and agreeableness suggesting its evolutionary role in preserving homeostasis.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stanek |first=Kevin |url=https://umnlibraries.manifoldapp.org/projects/of-anchors-and-sails |title=Of Anchors & Sails: Personality-Ability Trait Constellations |last2=Ones |first2=Deniz |date=2023-11-20 |publisher=University of Minnesota |isbn=978-1-946135-98-8 |doi=10.24926/9781946135988}}</ref>

One classic psychological experiment showed slower reaction times and less accurate answers when a deck of [[playing cards]] reversed the color of the [[Suit (cards)|suit]] symbol for some cards (e.g. red spades and black hearts).<ref>"On the Perception of Incongruity: A Paradigm" by Jerome S. Bruner and Leo Postman. ''Journal of Personality'', 18, pp. 206-223. 1949. [http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Bruner/Cards/ Yorku.ca] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060215174339/http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Bruner/Cards/|date=15 February 2006}}</ref>

Philosopher [[Andy Clark]] explains that perception, although it occurs quickly, is not simply a bottom-up process (where minute details are put together to form larger wholes). Instead, our brains use what he calls ''[[predictive coding]]''. It starts with very broad constraints and expectations for the state of the world, and as expectations are met, it makes more detailed predictions (errors lead to new predictions, or ''[[learning]] processes)''. Clark says this research has various implications; not only can there be no completely "unbiased, unfiltered" perception, but this means that there is a great deal of feedback between perception and expectation (perceptual experiences often shape our beliefs, but those perceptions were based on existing beliefs).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.edge.org/q2011/q11_6.html|title=Predictive Coding|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131205173145/http://www.edge.org/q2011/q11_6.html|archive-date=5 December 2013|url-status=dead|access-date=24 February 2011}}</ref> Indeed, predictive coding provides an account where this type of feedback assists in stabilizing our inference-making process about the physical world, such as with perceptual constancy examples.

[[Embodied cognition]] challenges the idea of perception as internal representations resulting from a passive reception of (incomplete) sensory inputs coming from the outside world. According to O'Regan (1992), the major issue with this perspective is that it leaves the subjective character of perception unexplained.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=O'Regan |first=J. Kevin |date=1992 |title=Solving the "real" mysteries of visual perception: The world as an outside memory. |url=http://doi.apa.org/getdoi.cfm?doi=10.1037/h0084327 |journal=Canadian Journal of Psychology |language=en |volume=46 |issue=3 |pages=461–488 |doi=10.1037/h0084327 |pmid=1486554 |issn=0008-4255}}</ref> Thus, perception is understood as an active process conducted by perceiving and engaged agents (perceivers). Furthermore, perception is influenced by agents' motives and expectations, their bodily states, and the interaction between the agent's body and the environment around it.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=O'Regan |first1=J. Kevin |last2=Noë |first2=Alva |date=2001 |title=A sensorimotor account of vision and visual consciousness |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0140525X01000115/type/journal_article |journal=Behavioral and Brain Sciences |language=en |volume=24 |issue=5 |pages=939–973 |doi=10.1017/S0140525X01000115 |pmid=12239892 |issn=0140-525X}}</ref>