Mental Models & Perception
Facts
Mental models are the images, assumptions, and stories that we carry in our minds about ourselves, other people and every other aspect of the world. They are maps of the world that we hold in our long term memory. These maps determine what we perceive and how we perceive it and shape how we act and interact.
Everything from genetics to cultural & social conditioning, to life experiences and our emotional reactions to them influence the mental models or maps of the world we have developed. Those maps, in their turn, determine to quite an extent our perception of ourselves and of the world around us.
Cognitive scientists are finding that people's mental maps, their theories, expectations, and attitudes, play a more central role in human perception than was previously understood.
Not only do we tend to not perceive (or quickly forget) any information that is incongruent with our picture, image or idea of the world, more and more research is confirming that people experience what they expect to experience, whether their expectations are conscious or buried deep in their sub-conscious mind. There is even evidence that our ‘mind's eye’1, our imagination, directly influences what we see.
There is a long list of factors influencing our perception2 including motivation, interest and need. Our perceptions are also selective3 (when two people perceive the same input in different ways) in the stimuli we tend to expose ourselves to, in our attention, in how we understand and interpret input and in what we remember.
Also affecting our perception are our state of mind (e.g. tiredness, stress, emotional states), our level of presence and even our nutrition, health and body chemistry.
Consideration
Not only does the above raise some penetrating (philosophical) questions regarding the nature of ‘objective reality’, the practical implications are far reaching.
Considering the effect that our perceptions have on our thinking and decision making processes and how they shape the way we act, react and interact, it follows that becoming more aware of how we perceive ourselves and the world around us and of the mental models underlying these perceptions, places a solid corner stone for developing personal mastery.
