The Influence of Labels and Categories on Perception

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This chapter explores the concept of pre-perceiving and labeling, discussing how our ability to perceive and understand things is influenced by the categories ingrained in our minds. It also touches on the role of education and previous experience in shaping our perception and attention. The speakers discuss the connection to predictive coding theory and the construction of reality based on our predictions and error correction.

David and Tamler are back for the new year and one of our resolutions was to do more episodes on William James. Today we talk about his account of ‘Attention’ from his 1890 volume The Principles of Psychology – another remarkably prescient chapter that still feels more than relevant today. What is attention and how does it function in the mind? What accounts for the different ways that we attend to things? Does attention help to shape or construct our reality? What is attention’s connection to the will? Does James anticipate predictive coding theory?

Plus we discuss the removal of the head of a renowned university for reasons that have nothing to do with the mission of higher learning.

Episode Links

Chancellor of University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Fired [nbc.com]

William James chapter on Attention from Principles of Psychology (1890) [yorku.ca]