FOCS Perception

Question 1

What is perception?

Answer 1

Is the active process of SELECTING, ORGANISING and INTERPRETING people, objects, events, situations and activities.

Question 2

Extension of what is perception

Answer 2

• Active denotes certain meanings
  
  • We are not passive receivers
  • We select what we want to notice
  • We organise and interpret what we have selectively noticed
    
    • We process the information we want to process

Question 3

Selecting Information (=/= Selection) Defn

Answer 3

• Selecting Info → Storage
  
  • Organise the chosen info → Define them
    
    • Interpret Info → Refine
      
      • Selecting info → …….

Question 4

Selection Definition

Answer 4

Many things are simultaneously happening in a room

• Only select what we want to notice because
  
  • Too much information, where most of it are likely irrelevant

Question 5

Factors Affecting Selection (External)

Answer 5

• External → Be mindful of the external stimuli that takes attention away from your message
  
  • Larger
  • Intense
  • Unusual

Question 6

Factors Affecting Selection (Internal)

Answer 6

• Internal → Make sure your messages touch on the needs, motivations, interests of others. Have someone proofread for you
  
  • Things that matters most to us
  • Interests
  • Needs
  • Motives

Question 7

Organisation Defn

Answer 7

We don’t perceive randomly, instead we organise our perceptions in meaningful ways

Question 8

Organisation Extension - Constructivism

Answer 8

Constructivism: Theory that states that we organise and interpret experience by applying cognitive structure called cognitive schemata or just schemata

Question 9

Organisation Extension - Cognitive Schemata

Answer 9

• Cognitive Schemeta
  
  • Mental structures that people use to organise and interpret experience

Question 10

Cognitive Schemata

Answer 10

Prototypes, Personal Constructs, Stereotypes and Scripts

Question 11

Prototypes of Cognitive Schemata

Answer 11

1. Prototypes are knowledge structures that define the clearest of ideal examples of some category
   
   1. Ideal team member is a jokester

Question 12

Personal Constructs of Cognitive Schemata

Answer 12

2. Personal Constructs are individual mental yardsticks that are used to measure a person or situation along a bipolar dimension of judgement
   
   1. We assess people based on our own constructs, not based on the constructs we could use
   2. 2 polar ends of the spectrum
      
      1. Intelligent vs Not-intelligent
      2. Kind vs Not-Kind

Question 13

Stereotypes of Cognitive Schemata

Answer 13

3. Stereotypes is a predictive generalisation about a person or situation
   
   1. Exaggerated beliefs associated with a social category
      
      1. Usually generalised/exaggerated
      2. Provide us with expectations about the traits and behaviours
      3. Not intrinsically “good” or “bad”
      4. We need stereotypes in order to predict what will happen
      5. Selective, Subjective and not necessarily accurate

Question 14

Scripts of Cognitive Schemata

Answer 14

4. Scripts are a sequence of activities that spells out how we and others are expected to act in action
   
   1. Sequence of activities that spells out how we and others are expected to act in a specific situation
      
      1. Sequence of doing things: Going to a restaurant
         
         • Sit down
         • Look at menu
         • Order
         • Eat

Question 15

Interpretation Definition

Answer 15

Subjective process of creating explanations for what we observe and experience

Question 16

Common way to interpret: Attribution

Answer 16

Attribution: Act of explaining why something happens or why a person acts a particular way

Question 17

Self-Serving Bias

Answer 17

• Self-serving bias: Although we develop explanations of our own and others’ behaviours, the attributions we make are not necessarily accurate
  
  • Tends to serve our personal interests
  • Can excessively credit for what we do well in
  • Deny responsibility for our failures
  • Judge others less kindly than ourselves

Question 18

Locus: Attribution of person’s behaviour to internal or external factors

Answer 18

Internal
He’s short tempered

External
The traffic jam frustrated him

Question 19

Stability: Enduring factors that will/will not change over time

Answer 19

Stable
She’s a nervous person

Unstable
She’s nervous now because of the big deal

Question 20

Specificity: Explanation of actions as result of global or specific actions

Answer 20

Global
She’s intelligent

Specific
She’s gifted in mathematics

Question 21

Responsibility/Control: Ascribing responsibility for actions to themselves or factors beyond their control

Answer 21

Within person control
She does not try to control her temper

Beyond personal control
She has a chemical imbalance

Question 22

Subliminal Perception

Answer 22

Subliminal perception refers to visual and auditory information presented at a speed and or intensity that is below the conscious threshold of perception through one or more channels and thus not readily apparent to the subject

Question 23

Halo Effect

Answer 23

• Thehalo effect(sometimes called thehalo error) is the tendency for positive impressions of a person, company, brand or product in one area to positively influence one’s opinion or feelings in other areas.
• Halo effect is “the name given to the phenomenon whereby evaluators tend to be influenced by their previous judgments of performance or personality.”
• The halo effect which is a cognitive bias can possibly prevent someone from accepting a person, a product or a brand based on the idea of an unfounded belief on what is good or bad

Question 24

Fundamental Attribution Error

Answer 24

We attribute a person’s behaviour to their character without taking into account the limitations and constraints within which the person might be operating