Perception is an active process of filtering and organizing, not passive reception
Evidence
The organization of sensations and perceptions has been a long-standing topic in experimental psychology. Sensation refers to the representation of a real-world object by a sensory organ, whereas perception means the higher-level interpretation of the real-world object formed by the brain based on a set of sensations. Perceptions are complete interpretations of objects or events, whose organization does not require exhaustive sensory information about the object being inspected. — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 1323 (
#corroborates, via linked claim)
Listening for what has not yet sounded—like a fisherman waiting for a nibble or a bite. … Pull the sound out of the air like a fisherman catching a fish, sensing its size and energy —when you hear the sound,—play it. — Pauline Oliveros, Deep Listening, 382 (
#qualifies, via linked claim)
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Perception is indistinguishable from the practical organization of the world into instruments — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 860; Perception arrives pre-shaped by expectations and context, never raw — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 729; Primary perception is organized around attraction and repulsion affecting bodily movement — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle of…, 362 (+16 more)
Broader Connections
- So-called selective perception follows structured patterns, not random individual variance.
#corroborates(1.00) - Perception is a brain interpretation that need not use all sensory detail
#corroborates(1.00) — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 1323 - Sound perception is a constructive act mediated by memory, association, and social role
#corroborates(0.95) — Almo Farina, Soundscape Ecology, 950 - Perceptual listening involves attending to sounds not yet present.
#qualifies(0.95) — Pauline Oliveros, Deep Listening, 382 - Listening actively shapes the sound it perceives rather than merely registering it
#corroborates(0.95) — Pauline Oliveros, Deep Listening, 346 - Neural encoding of perception is evidenced by modulation tied to listener reports
#corroborates(0.95) - Allport held that perception blends perceiver and object input
#corroborates(0.95) - Perception requires original receptivity that is neither identity nor radical alterity
#complicates(0.90) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 434 - Perception requires shared substance between perceiver and perceived.
#complicates(0.90) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 743 - Attention is not just a filter of perception but the formative interface of identity
#complicates(0.85) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 355