The Selectivity of the Human Mind

By Jimmy Henderson (Hons (phil), MA (psychology) FRC)

‘If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, Infinite’

William Blake

  Apart from the biological limitations of our sensory organs, further research has shown that the actual processing of sensory information in the brain can be either activated or inhibited, even at a very basic (neural) level. Information pathways carrying both visual and auditory information to the brain are able to be switched on and off by mental states or processes, resulting in selective attention and selective perception. Selective attention occurs when one attaches different levels of importance to incoming messages and the mind filters out that which is considered not relevant, or it is simply ignored. An example of this would be hearing one’s name being called in a crowded room in spite of all the surrounding noise and conversation.

   Research has also shown that certain aspects of a situation can be passed over due to one’s state of mind or other personal factors. This is called selective perception. Over the years, each person accumulates memories relating to his or her experiences of different events and situations. Lessons learnt from these experiences become stored at a subliminal level in packages called ‘schemas’, which act as programs or ‘rules’ for future thinking and behavior.  For example, as a result of his negative past social experiences, the young man previously mentioned with regard to the ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’, carried with him certain ideas such as ‘I am not popular’. This statement formed part of his ‘self-schema’, which would include other fundamental or ‘core’ self-beliefs, and, as seen in this case, severely affected his social interactions.  

   Schemas can be shaped by our backgrounds, culture, values and belief systems, and, in a manner of speaking, could be seen as symbolic of our lives, being based on our personal interpretations of past experiences. They can even embody our emotions and attitudes, and as seen from the example of the young man, can contain word-statements or even images which influence our perceptions, judgments and actions. They do this by inducing selective perception when we are mentally processing the information, which results in certain thoughts, ideas or even visual characteristics either being accentuated or ignored, depending on whether it corresponds or clashes with our existing collection of schemas. When it comes to people making sense of any situation or event, these schemas result in different perspectives, opinions or views.

   In fact, our minds are actually quite selective in what it allows us to see or experience, and this is probably for the best, as one could well imagine what it would be like if every surrounding image, sound or movement was allowed to enter into our consciousness at any given time. The human mind would simply not be able to cope with such an overload of sensory information. 

Jimmy Henderson is a metaphysician and the author of a number of books and articles on inner self-development. He has an Honours degree in philosophy (metaphysics) and a Masters degree in Psychology. His books ‘Multi-Dimensional Thinking’ (2007) and ‘Multi-dimensional Perception’ (2010) are available on Amazon.com and Kalahari.com and can also be ordered via his own website www.jimmyhendersonbooks.com