2.1. Perceptions

Perception is the process by which we interpret sensory data, which comes to us through our five senses.  Perception is influenced by structural and functional factors. Structural factors come from the physical aspects of the stimuli, which are being exposed. Functional factors are psychological factors that influence perception and therefore introduce some subjectivity into the process. These include cultural elements, motivation, mood, wants, needs, and attitude.

Other selective processes also operate during perception. These are selective exposure, selective perception, selective attention and selective retention.  Selective exposure is the tendency for individuals to expose themselves to those communications that are in agreement with their existing attitudes and to avoid those communications that are not.  Selective perception is the tendency for people’s perception to be influenced by wants, needs, attitudes, and other psychological factors. Selective attention is the tendency for individuals to pay attention to those parts of a message that are consonant with strongly held attitudes, beliefs or behaviors and to avoid those parts of a message that go against strongly held attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors. Selective retention is the tendency for information recall to be influenced by wants, needs, attitudes, and other psychological factors.