The Individual Processes: Perception | Commerce & Accountancy Optional Notes for UPSC PDF Download

Definition of Perception

Perception is how our brain organizes, identifies, and interprets sensory information to understand the world around us.

Nervous System and Physical Stimulation

• All perception involves signals in our nervous system, which result from the physical stimulation of our sense organs.
• For example, vision is triggered by light hitting our eyes, smell is influenced by odor molecules, and hearing is linked to pressure waves.

Active Role of Perception

• Perception isn't just passive reception of signals; it can be influenced by learning, memory, and expectations.

"Top-Down" and "Bottom-Up" Processing

• "Bottom-up" processing involves basic information that builds higher-level understanding, like recognizing shapes.
• "Top-down" processing is influenced by our concepts and expectations, shaping how we perceive things based on our knowledge.

Complexity of Nervous System

• Perception relies on the intricate functions of our nervous system.
• Despite this complexity, the process feels mostly effortless because much of it happens without conscious awareness.

Perception is a three phase process of selecting, organizing and interpreting information.  

Cognitive Bias

• What is Cognitive Bias:
  • Cognitive bias is a tendency for our judgment to go off track in certain situations, leading to distorted perceptions, inaccurate judgments, or irrational interpretations.
• Pattern of Deviation:
  • It's a consistent deviation from what's considered normal or expected judgment.
  • This can be compared with judgments from people outside the situation or based on independently verifiable facts.
• Evolution of Cognitive Biases:
  • Researchers have identified various cognitive biases over the past six decades in fields like cognitive science, social psychology, and behavioral economics.
• Adaptive and Heuristic Biases:
  • Some biases may be helpful, leading to more effective actions or quicker decisions when speed is crucial (heuristics).
• Mechanisms and Information Processing:
  • Other biases might arise from a lack of mental mechanisms or limited capacity for processing information (bounded rationality).
• Diverse Causes:
  • Cognitive biases can stem from different causes, ranging from adaptive strategies to cognitive limitations.

The following is a list of the more commonly studied cognitive biases:

• Framing by using a too-narrow approach and description of the situation or issue.
• Hindsight bias, sometimes called the "I-knew-it-all-along" effect, is the inclination to see past events as being predictable.
• Fundamental attribution error is the tendency for people to over-emphasize personality-based explanations for behaviors observed in others while under-emphasizing the role and power of situational influences on the same behavior.
• Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms one's preconceptions; this is related to the concept of cognitive dissonance.
• Self-serving bias is the tendency to claim more responsibility for successes than failures. It may also manifest itself as a tendency for people to evaluate ambiguous information in a way beneficial to their interests.
• Belief bias is when one's evaluation of the logical strength of an argument is biased by their belief in the truth or falsity of the conclusion.