Читать книгу The Communication Playbook - Teri Kwal Gamble - Страница 114

Age can influence perception. The aging brain consumes and processes more data, sifting through larger amounts of information than the brains of traditional college-aged students. Students this age are more able to ignore distractions, whereas older people, because of their reduced ability to filter, exhibit more inclusive attention. As a result, older people tend not to make snap judgments regarding what is or could become important. This frees them to learn more about situations and people—giving them a potential perceptual advantage.⁶

Memory and perception are also linked. Earlier perceptions influence future ones.⁷ How we interpret and respond to selected stimuli determines if a particular person or experience enters our memory. If a perception does enter our memory, we are able to retrieve and use it again and again.

A reliable memory, however, depends on whether our reconstruction of experience is accurate and clear.⁸ Our perceptual abilities, distorted by our beliefs, desires, and interests, affect how we interpret and remember events.⁹ For example, although it occurred in 2001, many of us still have vivid memories of 9/11. In interviews, when asked to recall those memories, people spoke of having watched television all morning, riveted by images of the two planes striking the twin towers. This memory was, in fact, false. There was no video of the first plane hitting the North Tower of the World Trade Center on 9/11. Despite this reality, 73% of Americans surveyed said they saw this happen. What’s more, they felt confident about their memories.

Memories of events that did not actually happen the way we remember them are the cause of countless disputes. Memory is a human construct, an amalgam of what we experience, read, piece together, and want to be true. A number of reasons account for our misremembering events: Memories are transient and tend to fade over time; we remember aspects of an event but are likely to misattribute them; and our biases distort our recollections.

When has memory influenced your perception of an event? Our memories, like perception, are fallible, something we need to remember.¹⁰