In this enlightening discussion, Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett, a leading psychologist and Chief Science Officer at the Center for Law, Brain & Behavior, explores how our brains don't just perceive reality—they create it. She explains how sensory inputs and past experiences shape our interpretations, leading to constructs like social reality. Barrett dives into the imaginative power of our minds, illustrating how this creativity fosters innovation but may also challenge our ability to remain present in the moment. A fascinating journey into the nuances of perception!
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Martha's Concert Expectations
Martha listens to her favorite band constantly and finally books a close seat to see them live.
The vignette illustrates how prior experience shapes expectations about events like concerts.
insights INSIGHT
Experience Is Constructed
Your experience of reality combines sensory inputs and the brain's interpretation.
Brain signals are as necessary for experience as sensory signals from the world.
insights INSIGHT
The Reverse Inference Problem
The brain receives sensory outcomes and must infer their causes.
This reverse inference forces the brain to guess which outside events produced sensations.
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Our perception of reality is not an exact representation of the objective truth but rather a combination of sensory inputs and the brain’s interpretation of these signals. This interpretation is influenced by past experiences and is often predictive, with the brain creating categories of similar instances to anticipate future events.
The brain’s categorization process extends beyond physical characteristics to include abstract, functional features. This ability allows humans to create “social reality,” where we collectively assign functions or meanings to objects or concepts that don’t inherently possess them, such as the value of money or the concept of borders and citizenship.
The brain’s capacity for imagination, drawing from past experiences to create something entirely new, is a double-edged sword. While it allows for creativity and innovation, it can also lead to difficulties in staying present.
0:00 The debate over reality
0:57 Objective reality
3:54 Social reality
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About Lisa Feldman Barrett:
Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett is among the top 1% most-cited scientists in the world, having published over 250 peer-reviewed scientific papers. Dr. Barrett is a University Distinguished Professor of psychology at Northeastern University with appointments at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, where she is Chief Science Officer for the Center for Law, Brain & Behavior. She is the recipient of a NIH Director’s Pioneer Award for transformative research, a Guggenheim Fellowship in neuroscience, the Mentor Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Association for Psychological Science (APS) and from the Society for Affect Science (SAS), and the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the American Psychological Association (APA). She is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Royal Society of Canada, and a number of other honorific societies. She is the author of How Emotions are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain, and more recently, Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain.
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