This document discusses perception and how individuals create their own realities based on their unique perceptions. It defines key terms like cognition, environment, reality, and perception. It explains that perception is the process of interpreting our environment to create a reality, but that reality is not truly real - it is an illusion. Different people can perceive the same environment differently, leading to different realities. The perception process involves selecting, sorting, and interpreting information from our senses.

1. REALITY CHECK
DISCOVERING OUR REALITY

2. WE CRITICALLY THINK ABOUT OUR PERSONAL
REALITIES, NOT WHAT IS REALLY THERE.
• To become better thinkers we need to understand
how we create our own realities. Why are our
realities different than the realities of the people
around us? Why is it we vote one way while our
neighbors vote another?

3. PERCEPTION
• If we understand the perception process and our
individual bias's and the influence of stasis, we can
learn to be a better critical thinker.
• Perception is defined as the way you think about or
understand someone or something; the ability to
understand or notice something easily; the way that
you notice or understand something using one of
your senses
• Stasis is defined as a state or condition in which
things do not change, move, or progress; a comfort
zone

4. OVERVIEW OF PERCEPTION

5. KEY POINTS IN THE PERCEPTION PROCESS
• Reality and Environment are different. Here are four terms to understand the difference.
Cognitions: Are the
smallest units of
awareness. Also known
as "stimulli." These are
picked up by our five
senses. They are what
stimulates our eyes,
ears, nose, touch and
taste.
Environment: What is
really around us. The
source of cognitions.
When you listen to your
ipod. The ipod is your
environment. Your
cognitions come from
your ipod. You are
touching the volume
button, viewing the
screen and listening to
sounds coming from it.
Reality: Your mental
interpretation of your
environment. Based on
cognitions we receive and
interpret, we create a picture
in our mind of the
environment. If your
grooving to the music your
reality of your ipod is
positive. If your having
problems it and your having
trouble playing what you
want to hear, then the reality
of your ipod is negative.
Perception: Is the process we
experience that creates a
reality from an environment.
It’s how we take the
cognitions of an environment
and develop an
interpretation in our head
called a reality. Perception
isn’t the final product, that is
the reality. Perception was
the process we used to
create that reality.

6. THERE ARE NO CLONES HERE
• No two people have identical realities. We are all unique and process our environment differently than
anyone else. So we all have a slightly different interpretation of the environment. Have you ever looked
at your friend's car and thought, "That car is ugly?" Both of you are looking at the same environment.
But your friend sees that car like it’s a Ferrari, while you see the car and wonder "What is wrong with
my friend?"

7. ILLUSION
• Reality is not real, it is an illusion. The realities we create are not real, the environment is real. The realities
we create are just figments of our imagination based on the cognitions of our environment.
Cognitions/stimuli = Environment = Realities = Perception

8. WHAT WE ARGUE
• We argue realities, not environments.
We don't argue what is actually there in
our environment, instead we argue the
individual pictures we have created in our
heads about that environment. We
argue what and how we see perceive
things.

9. PERCEPTION PROCESS
• There are three stages to the perception process.
• Select: We select the and filter the cognitions we use.
• Sort: We sort the ones we’ve chosen to build our experience.
• Interpret: We then interpret the information to use it.

10. JUST FOR FUN
WHAT’ THE ILLUSION?