Communication and Perception
Read this chapter, which explains that interpretation is the part of the perception process in which we assign meaning to our experiences using mental structures known as schemata. Our previous knowledge and experience help us make sense of the perceptual cues around us. The perception process affects our communication because we respond to stimuli differently based on how we perceive them. Take time to review the questions at the end of each section.
Communication and Perception
Think back to the first day of
classes. Did you plan ahead for what you were going to wear? Did you get
the typical school supplies together? Did you try to find your
classrooms ahead of time or look for the syllabus online? Did you look
up your professors on an online professor evaluation site? Based on your
answers to these questions, I could form an impression of who you are
as a student. But would that perception be accurate? Would it match up
with how you see yourself as a student? And perception, of course, is a
two-way street. You also formed impressions about your professors based
on their appearance, dress, organization, intelligence, and
approachability. As a professor who teaches others how to teach, I
instruct my student-teachers to really take the first day of class
seriously. The impressions that both teacher and student make on the
first day help set the tone for the rest of the semester.
As we
go through our daily lives we perceive all sorts of people and objects,
and we often make sense of these perceptions by using previous
experiences to help filter and organize the information we take in.
Sometimes we encounter new or contradictory information that changes the
way we think about a person, group, or object. The perceptions that we
make of others and that others make of us affect how we communicate and
act. In this chapter, we will learn about the perception process, how we
perceive others, how we perceive and present ourselves, and how we can
improve our perceptions.
This text was adapted by Saylor Academy under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License without attribution as requested by the work's original creator or licensor.