I believe our expectation determines our perception. Our mental processes are built on the foundation of some concepts.  One tends to concentrate on what they expect and forget about other things. Our perception is based on our expectations. We like basing everything on a reason forgetting chance. In line with this, we base our perception on our expectation. Imagine watching a football game where the teams have blue and green uniforms. Your expectation will be that everybody in the field is either in green or blue uniform. If another person gets into the field with a black uniform, you might not notice just because your perception is that everybody in the field has a blue or green uniform. Your expectation in this case is guiding your perception.  Our thinking always tends to base things on other things. You want to perceive something because that is what you expect.

Perception and sentence completion

Normally, we tend to complete sentences in our mind when someone is talking. It can save time but it can also complicate your communication with that person. The problem is that we tend to perceive what we expect. What you expect me to say is what you perceive I will say. Imagine if what you expect and perceive me to say is wrong. In your mind, you already think you know what I will say but then I say a different thing. The possibility is that you will not understand what I have said rather you will understand that I said what you perceive. There is a communication problem. I will say one thing but will understand a different thing. There will be no clear communication between us.  We see what we perceive and perceive what we expect. The mind concentrates on the perceptions and ignores all other things.

Perception and memory

A witness testimony alone cannot be depended on in a trial. First, our mental processes are built on the foundation of some concepts. We tend to base everything on a certain concept mainly our perception. In a court of law, lawyers usually ask questions based on the answer they want to hear. They always try to trigger the mind of the witness to get the answer they want. In addition, the way the questions are asked really matters.  A question can be answered different based on whether it is abstract or concrete.  People’s abilities to understand the two forms of questions are different.  Lawyers are well known in using these forms of questions. They will ask the same questions in different ways to confuse the witness or to make the witness say what they want. They will make a case not based on the truth but by manipulating the witness.

Response to Ryan Kovacs 

Great view Ryan; our expectation determines how we perceive things around us. When approaching a situation, the outcome we expect is what we look for. I like the you tube video, I actually noticed the gorilla because I had read your post and expected it. I did not get the correct number of passes just because I concentrated on the gorilla and forgot the players. If you concentrate on the players, you will not notice the gorilla just because you do not expect it to be there.  It is common for us to perceive our environment based on what we expect of it.

Response to Stephen Hebert 

Great thinking Stephen, witness testimony alone cannot be relied alone.  Other kinds of evidence should correlate with the witness testimony for it to be considered. Our minds can perceive things that never happened based on what we expected to happen. In addition, after hearing someth8ing repeatedly, you can perceive it to have happened. This is the reason why lawyers like asking questions repeatedly to confuse a witness. I think the testimony of a witness should be gathered immediately to prevent any mind triggering or speculation. Lawyers should not be allowed to speculate in any way because they might skew the mind of the witness.

Response to Thanh Vo 

Great thinking Thanh, our memory does not always record what happens rather it tends to record what we perceive to have happened. The issue is that what we perceive to have happen is not always, what happens.  A witness can record what he/she perceived to have happened which might not be what happened. A good example is in a murder case. If a man murders another man the wife of the murderer cannot make a good witness. If she does not expect that her husband is capable of murder, she will perceive that the husband cannot commit the murder and it is hard to convince her otherwise.

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