Perception and Attention in Real Life

Learned about Perception and Attention today. Relating it to the real life... It explains how we can easily detect someone that's special to us in the crowd and take his/her presence as fate. ^^

Well, there are 5 functions of perceptual system: Attention, Localization, Recognition, Abstraction, Constancy.

1. Attention: Process of screening incoming stimuli

We meet up with many people everyday. (Attention: Process of screening incoming stimuli) We tend to pay more attention to people that is special to us while less on the passer-by. (Selective attention : Attending to some stimuli while ignoring others) As we meet up with the special ones, we will put our eyes on the person more. even stare at the person longer than a passer-by. (Eye fixation : A brief period which the eyes are relatively stationary.)

2. Localization : Process determining where the object is

As we look at the special ones to us, we'll see the person clearer and other people in his surrounding become more blur as background. (Figure-Ground Relationship: Figure=object; surrounding:background) Thus, we are able to detect easily the location of the person even he/she is surrounding by lots of people.

3. Recognition : Binding together various features associated with an object

We would bind the features on the person, such as a tall and fit figure, tall nose bridge, pretty eyes etc. If we failed to recognized the person's face, it's called prosopagnosis (Prosopagnosis : Selective inability to recognize faces, although other visual objects may be correctly identified)

4. Abstraction : Process converting the raw sensory information acquired by sensory information acquired by the sense organs into abstract categories that are pre-stored in memory

We would make an abstract 'him/her' into our mind, a brief figure of him/her. The one which appears in our mind when we are thinking of the special ones.

5. Constancy: Brain's ability to maintain a perception of the underlying physical characteristics of an object despite changes in sensory manifestation.

No matter he/she is surrounded by people less/more outstanding than him/her, he/she is still outstanding to you. He/she is who he/she is.

Sometimes, our defense mechanism will also be activated when we meet the special ones to us. The person will look nearly perfect in our eyes. (Idealization : Defense mechanism in which a person conciously or usually unconsiously overestimates an attribute or admirable qualities of another and the underestimation of their limitations)

May everyone of us can meet up the special one who is the right one for us... ^^

Warmth In the Cold

It is raining season in Kelantan. The weather is so cold... Liking the cold breeze and refreshing environment brought by the rain. The cold breeze is now playing a role as my free air conditioner in my room. So nice... ^^

Nevertheless, it would be nicer to be able feel the warmth in the cold. If there's a hot baked Portugese tart, hot BBQ sweet potato or hot french fries now, it would be really warm! Suddenly, I become so craving for the warm food so much... It's so lovely to be able to have hot junk food in this very cold night. ^^

Anyway, it's impossible to get those hot stuff now. Just imagining the happiness to have those in front of me right now. It's so heartwarming... Well,what I can do now to stop the cravings? Have a hot chocolate milk + classical music to suppress my thought. Even though it's not as warm as them, still, it's enjoyable and relaxing though...

In this cold weather, what's the thing that comes into your mind? Are you enjoying the warmth in the cold now?

Learning From A Psychologist

Reviewing my old posts, found that it's kind of aggressive and emotionally unstable. Hmm...those were the stories past few days with the negative thoughts in my mind. Now,I feel much better dy. Thanks for the concerns ya! I appreciated that. ^^

Realized lots of things these few days. We couldn't have found someone that can understand us 100% coz everyone is unique in this world. So, that's why communication play an important role in our life. We couldn't control how others act but we can control what we think and feel.

A psychologist told me, our emotions wouldn't be affected by others if we do not allow others to affect us. She asked me to think about it. Well, what you understand by this phrase? From what I've learnt in a talk, we can actually control our own emotion and feeling. We all had our own key of happiness. We used to let others keep it for us unconsciously. Thus,others can affect our feelings. For instance, a wife is unhappy because her husband went to outstation for work purposes. The wife felt unhappy coz she let her husband to keep her key of happiness. If she holds her own key, she'll be happy on what she's doing, and not being affected much no matter what others do. I should have learnt to keep my own key and not letting others to keep it for me. ^^

Also, she taught me to be assertive. What's assertive? Previously, I got a misconception on it, thinking that it's simply rejection on others,say 'No' strongly. Due to my misconception,I acted wrongly causing my aggressive acts. Sorry for those being hurt by these. Now, I know what assertive is... From Dorland's medical dictionary, Assertiveness means a form of behavior characterized by a confident declaration or affirmation of a statement without need of proof; this affirms the person's rights or point of view without either aggressively threatening the rights of another (assuming a position of dominance) or submissively permitting another to ignore or deny one's rights or point of view. We have our own rights. I have my right to express my feelings, you have your right whether to read or not to read these. ^^

Well, to be assertive, I need to be a decisive and confident person. It's time consuming to learn it, but without trying, I would never get to learnt it. So, I am ready to fall again in order to learn to make a good decision with confidence. I do need help in this. As Dr mentioned last time, actually normal people can go for psychotherapy if they want to know better and improve themselves. I would give it a try even it sounds like I'm wasting both therapist's and my time. No matter what, I wouldn't mind how people look at me for getting psychotherapy, coz I have my right doing things I want. Stigmatize on people receiving therapy? So what? They'll be a better person after therapy, could even be better than those who got a stigma on it. I believe it can make me better rather than doing nothing. Hope I can get to be a better person in cognitive behavioral therapy coming soon! All the best! ^^