Lesson 11/10/2016          Memory Contaminates Perception


This lesson we read an article in The Guardian about how memory contaminates perception. I was introduced to the topic of visual working memory which stores repeated everyday tasks visually and prompts the mind to repeat these behavioral patterns when confronted with the same visual stimuli. Essentially, it is a form of self mental programming to assist us with everyday tasks and to complete them with mechanical efficiency in order to provide consistent repetition which usually aides us in these tasks. One example would be driving a car. The brain compares the current visual stimuli with that of previous iterations and causes the person to instinctively perform habits such as adjusting the mirror or fastening the seat belt.

One potential problem for this is the way it affects our perception. Even though it is designed to perfect everyday physical patterns to a consistent standard, it limits our perception of new ways or information. It works in a predictive way that causes the mind to premeditate images based on previous stimuli. This was shown in the 2 tests taken from the article, where people judged multiple dot movements based off of the primary one that they were expected to focus on. This limits our ability to instantly cope with new information that defies a certain pattern or associated task. It makes us less directly visually aware but relies heavily on memory associated with visual stimuli. This can make people slower to react in events of sudden change such as road accidents or other standard defying events.