Information Processing

This is one of my favourite subjects when it comes to the field of psychology and it can be a handy tool for identifying any biases and prejudices that you may have.

Not that all biases are a disadvantage of course; having a strong bias to eating expensive and good food can actually be very pleasurable if you have the money to do so. A lot of armchair psychologists have taken these words and made negative associations with them. Whenever we hear bias these days we think of unconscious bias, or Political bias, but in reality sometimes bias can serve you well like the example above.

Information processing is identifying the raw data that filters through your eyes and thoughts, and when you make sense of it all you brain has an image, words, and setting to what just happened in the moment. Many different people will interpret the same stimuli in very different ways.

We'll take me for a very basic example since I know all about where I stand with my beliefs and concepts of the world.

Say for example I was walking along the street and a Muslim person stopped me with the Big Issue asking me to buy a copy because it would go to help them to be able to afford food for their family this week.

Now of course in the millisecond this information has been presented to me, it will go on a little journey through the processing system of my brain.

First of all it's going to stop at my safety parameters. Is this situation safe? Am I able to stop and talk to this person without being in any immediate danger? Safety parameters are only off for friends and family.

Anyway, if I deem it not safe then the information will be disregarded and I'll just get on with my journey leaving the big issue seller to their dealings. If you're a coder think of this process like an IF statement. We may think about the information again as an afterthought.

If it's safe then we will journey onto the next processing level which would be -- how have my interactions gone with people like this in the past? I may take in various details about the skin colour, their gender, or the clothes they are wearing, or the country (or region) they look like they are from, and I'll weigh all that information up and this will decide whether I will be on the defensive, or relaxed.

This may seem highly racist or sexist, but we all do it. Mostly it works on an subconscious level unless you train yourself to think about it.

Further on from that level we have our prediction parameters based on what we've previously analysed. Such as what we think they will actually do with the money based on our previous interactions with these people before. Are they being truthful? Or will they just go and use it for vodka, and is this something that sits well with us?

From that processing level we have lots of little other sets that we run the information through too -like for example what do our morals dictate? What do our religious beliefs say on such a matter? Even deeper than this can be how our parents and friends were with us in childhood when we wanted something for free? And how did this make us feel?

And all these little tests, questions, and scenarios happen in a flash. Under a second. The brain is a marvellous thing when you think about it. Currently it's the fastest processor known to man. Nothing quite matches the human brain, however they are definitely catching up to it.

After we've weighed up all our little decisions in our mind then we make one. And we buy a Big Issue, or we don't. It's not certain. There will be many different responses from a whole different set of people. That's what makes the world beautiful.

Try it out for yourself. Think about a cup of coffee. Should you have one now, or later? Think about all the filters and processes and biases your mind goes through. Try it!

You may surprise yourself!