1. Discovering Our Realities 2. Reality 3. Environment 4. Cognitions 5. Perception 6. The Perception Process 7. We select data from the environment 8. We sort data 9. We interpret data 10. Selecting and Sorting Filters 11. Factors that influence how we interpret data 12. Reality Testing 13. Reminders 14. Sources

1. Discovering Our
Realities
Brianne Halbert, Communications 104

2. Reality
-What we think is real. No two identical
realities.
-The degree of agreement reached by two
ends of communication line.
-Degree of duplication achieved between
cause and effect.
-Includes everything that it is observable,
accessible or understandable by science,
philosophy, theology or any other system of
analysis.

3. Environment
-things that are actually there around us…
-before the process of perception.
-we do not argue what is actually there in our environment.
Tip
Environments include
things that are actually
there. If you are at home
that is your environment.
At school? Your
environment. At the
park? Environment.
Melancholy? NOT your
environment.

4. Reality and the environment are based on
cognitions
Reality is based on the
cognitions we receive and how we
interpret them. Environment is the
source of cognitions. Also known as
“stimuli
➔Seeing----> Eyes
➔Hearing----> Ears
➔Smelling----> Nose
➔Feeling----> Touch
➔Taste----> Mouth

5. Perception: this is the process we
experience that creates a reality
from an environment. This is how
we take the cognitions of an
environment and from them
develop an interpretation in our
heads called a reality. Remember,
perception is not the final product,
that is the reality. Perception is the
process we use to create that final
reality.

6. The Perception Process
-Method we use to create our reality from our environment.
-Link between the past which gives it its meaning and the future which it helps
to interpret.
Three steps:
We Select,
We Sort,
We interpret data from our environment.

7. We select data from the
environment.
-We use five senses: sight, smell,
hearing, feeling, taste.
-Filtering mechanism.
-We ignore what we do not need.

8. We sort data.
-Organize and prioritize the
information and data we have
become aware of.
-They are unique.
-We organize and prioritize the data
so that certain information stands
out over other information.

9. We interpret data from our
environment.
-We manipulate data to give
meaning to the information that has
been selected and sorted.
-We search our memory and assign
meaning to the data based on its
similarity to our previous
experiences.

10. Psychological condition-Mental state that affects
how we recognize incoming data.
Physical condition- Can affect what data we
recognize.Include sense, age, health, hunger.
Language-Allow us to understand messages from
the environment.
Formal Learning-Shapes how we view our
environment
Experiences- Are our first hand learning
activities.Tends to be layered.
Expectations-Are perceptions that we expect to
conform to what we already believe the actual event is.
Selecting and
Sorting
Filters

11. Factors that influence how we interpret data:
Pattering- Attempt to
keep new or current
perceptions in line with the
past ones.
“His son was stupid and
lazy”
Closure- How to make
sense out of our environment.
“Fill in the blanks”
Selective
Perception-Take place
when we narrow available
cognitions to make an
interpretation of the
environment.
“Students who do not do well in
school are stupid and lazy”

12. Reality Testing
-Tool used by mediators that
involves displaying to a party the
picture they have drawn of their
position, and encouraging them to
test what they see.
-Provides the critical thinker with a
better way to handle their
interpretations of people, events
and things in their environment.

13. Reminders
➔ No two people have identical
realities. We are all unique and
process the environment
differently.
➔ Reality is not real, it is an
illusion. The realities we create
are just figments of our
imagination based on the
cognitions of our environment.
➔ We argue realities, not
environments. Instead we argue
the individual pictures we have
created in our heads about that
environment.

14. Sources:
Communicating Critical Thinking by Jack
Sterk and Jim Marteney