Perception: Matching Game
Selection: Salient Information
First, the initial stage is the perception process. While at the selection phase, one must identify and gather salient information that is unique. As such, different individuals gather different information from one other due to differences in individual personalities, attitude, and experience. Resultantly, the salient information is gathered, organized, and interpreted to come up with a perception.
There are numerous pieces of salient information that enable me to determine the move to make on each item when in the process of completing as matching game. Arguably, the individual’s gender remains as one piece of information vital in making choices. Firstly, gender stereotypes played a major role in my choices where I considered teddy bear, cat mask, and sugar bowl to be feminine; wrestling belt and electric guitar to be masculine.
Important, another piece of salient information that was helpful in decision making was the facial expression of each person. The background of the pictures and the environmental factors exhibited by each picture played a vital role.
There were those pictures where individual were formal and other where they were casual. Observably, the lady in the first picture riding a carrousel, while the gentleman in the opposite end in formal attire and an office background. The information attained from the second picture was that of a relaxed man in informal attire. The man looked casual, happy and friendly. The first thing to note in the third picture was the scarf since it is colorful and artsy. In was keen and picked up on whether the individual wore a gloomy or a smiling face or looked warmly. I used that information to select and assign the items accordingly.
Organization
The first step is to categorize and organize the information gathered according to the selected step. In the process of the matching game, I place all items in a chronological manner. Preferably, I started to group the items together based on their themes i.e. the Harrison cat and the cat shoes, the music album and the guitar. In addition, I organized the information to correspond with each picture based on the previous choices i.e. the cat shoes and the Harrison in the first picture since they had shared characteristics. Resultantly all the items were organized in groups of three in a manner that appeared to make sense to me based on their characteristics.
Interpretation: Attributions and Schemata
Interpretation c an be defined as a process of applying meaning to the salient information that has been collected and organized in the initial two steps of the perception process. Notably, it is the final step in the process of perception. There are several factors that may influence a person’s interpretation of information in the matching game. In my opinion, belief system, experience, and values were critical in the interpretation and eventual matching of the items to the individuals thereof. My schemata, that is; my morals, belief system, ethics and values were essential in interpreting information. Arguably, my gender stereotype was fundamental in assigning certain items to men and others to women. My attributions from past experiences were chief to my interpretation.
Impact of Knowledge of Perception on Communication
The third chapter has lots of information that influenced my communication events and perception process. Among them, the importance of empathy stands out. Placing myself in other peoples shoes and trying to view the world through their eyes, boost my understanding on how people organize and interpret the things they see. Another important concept grasped from the chapter is the idea of bias towards various in-groups and out-groups, as well as, use of both internal and external attributions. Arguably, one must be self-aware of my perception process, more to identifying personal bias towards other in-groups and out-groups.
