From your primary caregiver (usually your mother but not always), you learn to interpret information as well. If the way she talks to you and interacts with you is very direct and reliable - that is, what she says is what she does - then you tend to interpret information in a literal way. You do not develop the need to look for hidden meaning. If, on the other hand, she says one thing and does another - that is, her words are not congruent with her actions - then you tend to interpret information in an inferential way. You develop the need to look for hidden meaning.
Sometimes we grow up in an environment that sends us mixed signals, so that we develop the ability to interpret incoming information both literally and inferentially. Thus, we can adapt quickly to either form of interpretation as the situation demands. We can all learn, once we are aware of how we primarily interpret information, to shift our processing method to either literal or inferential, thus enhancing our ability to absorb and analyze the inputs we receive.
Between the ages of three and five, we begin to become aware of yet another level of information in our world: what is us and what is not us. We start to acknowledge the separateness of other individuals. We realize that we are not an extension of our mother, nor she of us, and that we are all separate from each other. We begin to perceive that we have an impact on others just as they have an impact on us. The phenomenon that is taking place is called the emergence of empathy . Empathy is the ability to see others as different from us, and to acknowledge their feelings as being different from ours.
If the child does not receive acknowledgment of his own separateness from his mother during these years, he does not learn to feel empathy. He believes himself unique in his ability to feel, and that he is the center of not just his universe, but of the whole universe. This is called narcissism . Although narcissism is quite normal and necessary in infancy, it becomes problematic in adulthood, since the narcissist is able to interpret information only as it relates to him, rather than how it also relates to others.
- Do you interpret information at face value, or literally?
- Do you look for the hidden meaning, thus interpreting information inferentially?
- Are you aware of the impact that you have on others, sensing their feelings as well as your own?
3. Representational and Filtering Systems
As we advance in our learning development, the information that we need to categorize increases in both volume and complexity so that we need to create symbols or representations for the stored data. We create representations using information from our five senses: visual (sight), auditory (sound), kinesthetic (touch, pressure and texture), olfactory (smell), and gustatory (taste). Combining a representation with a physiologic sensation results in a state: a state of happiness, alertness, and so on. Thus, we can recall a chocolate chip cookie that we have eaten by remembering what it smelled like, what it looked like, what it tasted like, what its texture felt like, whether it was crunchy (noisy) or chewy, and what our mood was like when we ate it. We can place ourselves in a state of mind having only the stored representation of the cookie from which to draw.
In addition to representations derived through our senses, we also create representations using a language that is both spoken and written. These are called digital representations. Unlike sensory representations, digital representations are symbols (words) that rely upon rules for their understanding. To understand these representations, it is necessary to know the language in which the symbols are based. The language that is spoken and written is called a meta-program because it develops after the senses develop; it relies on an agreed-upon set of rules, yet it nonetheless draws upon information from the senses for its execution. Also, a given written/spoken language is not universal: there are nearly 500 formally recognized languages in the world today.
Given that there is a barrage of sensory input out there waiting to assault us at any given moment, we have ways of filtering it so that it does not completely overwhelm us. We use values , which enable us to decide whether something is right or wrong, good or bad and how we feel about it. We arrange values in a hierarchy that we determine based upon our own model of the universe. We use our beliefs , which are generalizations about our world that either enable or disable us, giving or denying us power. We use our memories of past events. As we get older, we use collections of past memories to influence our behavior more than we use the present, which then plays a very small role in our behavior. We use decisions , in conjunction with memories, to create beliefs, and thus affect our perception. We also use language, or meta-programs as filtering a device by agreeing to and abiding by a set of rules.
