Perception

The way we perceive the world has everything to do with our thought process. People perceive the world in very different ways, and each person sees different things, even in the very same view, as the text notes. For example, a person who is color blind might not "see" the green of a tree or a lush lawn, but they would still see the beauty and stateliness of a 100-year-old oak tree, even beyond the color of its' leaves. More importantly, each person's perception helps color how they see the world and what they think about it. One person may perceive that the world is a negative, hostile environment, and they have to fight to survive. Their thought process would then see hostile actions even in the most meaningless of gestures, and they would be constantly on guard. Their perceptions may not be right, or even appropriate, but they would influence their thought process and reactions to things around them.

Perception involves the senses, and everyone experiences different things when they see or hear something. A classic example is the often used analogy of a group of people who witness a crime. When questioned, people that were eyewitnesses often give very different descriptions of the subject or the culprit, and many misidentify the criminal, even though they witnessed the activity. One of these examples played back a video tape and clearly showed they had misidentified the criminal, yet they were certain they "saw" what they remembered. This shows that perception certainly affects the thought process. We believe we saw what we saw, even though we "saw" it wrong. Something in the scene stuck in the witness' memory, and something they perceived made them remember it a different way. Their thought process was affected by what they perceived, and there are many other examples of this that occur every day in people's lives. Perhaps that is an example of inattention blindness, as well, but it shows that perception colors just about everything we do.

References

Basics of perception and awareness.