We Don’t See, We Recognize

Have you ever saw someone and thought that he was one of your friends but then upon approaching him you found that he was someone else?

Have you ever heard something then after thinking about it you discovered that you heard something else rather than what was said?

Have your ever read a line or a word thinking that it's something then after reading it again you discovered that its something else?

If we did assume that your sight and hearing ability are functioning well, what is happening then?

The answer is very simple, we don't see nor hear, we recognize!!

Don't get shocked, this is how your mind operates, to understand the whole story just take a look at the following example.

Example For Recognizing Instead Of Seeing

Suppose you were working for a company called "spot", and while driving you saw a road sign with the word "stop" written on it, most probably on the first instance you will read it "spot", because your mind will try to recognize first by checking whether what you are seeing have got a match in your knowledge database or not, and so you read it "spot" instead of "stop", but when your minds finds that its not logical to have aspot with a red sign on the road, then it will correct it by reading the correct word.

So the process was a two step process:

· You recognized the word by finding the closest match.

· You actually read the word.

What's funny is that someone who is working as a traffic man may read the logo of your company "stop" instead of "spot", and then his mind will correct it.

The previous example is the same one as the one we mentioned where you saw someone else thinking that he is your friend, in that case your mind just recognized the person first to see if he matches any of your friends or relatives knowledge base, and if no match was found then it corrects the view and you discover whom that person is.

Even In Love

It's worth to mention that if you love someone, your mind will try to match him more than anybody else, i.e. you may see many people looking like him everywhere you go, you just try to recognize everyone who have got similar looks as being him.

When Reading Or Hearing

The same goes with hearing and reading, your mind just tries to recognize first and then read or hear correctly as a second step.

This is one of the main concepts that speed reading is built upon, you just train yourself to recognize words and phrases instead of reading them and so this results in a faster speed of reading.