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Perception is influenced by perceptual set, context, motivation, and emotion. Perceptual set, or perceptual expectancy, refers to the tendency to perceive things in a particular way, influenced by previous experiences and expectations. This phenomenon affects the interpretation of stimuli, creating a set of mental tendencies and assumptions that impact sensory perceptions of sound, taste, touch, and sight.
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Perceiving mental states.

Peter Carruthers1

  • 1Department of Philosophy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20912, United States.

Consciousness and Cognition
|May 4, 2015
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Our perception of others' mental states is often direct and perceptual. This challenges traditional views by integrating cognitive concepts into conscious awareness, supported by working memory research.

Keywords:
Categorical perceptionCognitionNonconceptualPerceptionWorking memory

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Philosophy of Mind
  • Neuroscience

Background:

  • Traditional views often separate perception from cognition.
  • Understanding how we perceive others' mental states is crucial for social interaction.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To argue that awareness of others' mental states is primarily perceptual.
  • To explore how concepts, including mental-state concepts, are integrated into conscious perception.
  • To leverage findings from working memory research to support this claim.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of experimental findings on perception of animacy and intentionality.
  • Emphasis on the unencapsulated nature of perception.
  • Integration of theories on working memory and concept binding.

Main Results:

  • Awareness of mental states can be perceptual, not solely inferential.
  • Concepts can be directly bound into the contents of conscious perception.
  • Perception is generally unencapsulated, allowing for rich integration of information.

Conclusions:

  • Our understanding of others' mental states is fundamentally perceptual.
  • This perceptual access to mental states is supported by the mechanisms of working memory.
  • This perspective reframes the relationship between perception, cognition, and social awareness.