The Human Brain Experiences

The human brain experiences close to 11,000,000 bits of information per second but only take in about 40 of them. The brains selective attention, or responding to one stimulus rather than many others, helps show why people have different perceptions on just about anything. Perception is top-down processing, with our brain constructing our image of the tiny stimuli into a larger gestalt or whole in a matter that is the way that is best for us. Once the brain, perceives the figure as separate from the ground, it uses the rules of grouping and cues from our vision to help create a whole image. In my life there have been many instances where my perception of an event has been altered and affected my life.

One example of a time my perception has been altered is when riding the Hulk Roller Coaster at Islands Of Adventure. Prior to taking the ride, the screams of riders and the visual image of the tremendous roller coaster created my perception of how scary the ride was. For this reason, I was too afraid to ride the roller coaster for a long time until I finally decided to change my perception. In order to change my perception I decided that I had to try the ride for myself and then see what I think about it. Clearly, vision's dominance can sometimes create false perceptions of how things actually are.

Another one of my perceptions that has been altered is the rhythms and beats in music. After spending much of my earlier life learning musical patterns in a basic tempo and time signature, I tried to construct every song I heard into the same beat and tempo. However, after more exposure to music and learning more about music, I found that different rhythms and tempos exist and sometimes music may not make sense in one tempo, but make sense in another. Obviously, our experience has a large effect on our perceptions.

There are many factors that affect how we organize our visual experiences. One of the most... [continues]

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