1. Perception, Cognition and
Worldviews
...Or, everything you ever needed to know about Reality, your
Brain and Learning but were afraid to ask.

2. Frontal Lobe: Parietal Lobe: Sensory Perception
Spatial perception
Abstract Reasoning Amygdala
Conceptual
Memory
Long-range
planning
Personality Emotional reactions
Social Behavior Fight-Flight Response

3. … And sever old ones

4. ...when students interact with the world
and synthesize information obtained by
their senses, neurons receive input from
each other and are altered, creating new
electrical patterns between networks of
neurons. During learning, changes may
neurons
occur in the way neurons communicate
with each other; in the efficiency of
connections between neurons; in the
number of neurons involved in the
network; in the amount of energy required
for communication to be initiated; and in
how often communication occurs.
New neural connections are formed
constantly, while others are either
strengthened or eliminated. A large body of
research confirms that humans exposed to
more enriched environments have larger,
larger
heavier brains with increased branching
and connecting of neurons.

5. Enriched Environments:
Novelty:
Multiple Modalities:
ies
High Motivation & Focused Attention
Significant Emotional Reaction
But not too much emotion !!!

6. Perception is Variable: Position, Perspective,
Variable
Attention, Filters and Framing all affect your
perception.
Perception is Unreliable: Scientists
Unreliable
rely upon objective standards and
mathematics to test a hypothesis.
Perception is driven by the Mind as
much as by the Senses: You see in part
Senses
what you expect. You don’t hear much of
what you dislike.
FRAMING by others and your own WORLDVIEW create bias
- a distortion of your perceptions.
perceptions

8. “Right-Wing”

10. What is a “Worldview” anyway?
A worldview supplies a particular community with
the following:
•Basic assumptions about what is real
and what is unreal, true and false;
•Values - moral and ethical standards
•Historical and cultural examples
including myths, legends, rituals,
traditions
• Rule sets to guide behavior and punish
wrongdoers

11. Worldviews are shaped by the culture around you

13. Every society changes values and customs slowly over a
long period of time.
Individuals and organizations react to their environment when
they OBSERVE, ORIENT, DECIDE and ACT. This creates a
steady flow of small changes in a worldview.
Cataclysmic events or earth shaking discoveries can rapidly
and dramatically change people’s worldviews -ex. Pearl
Harbor

14. 1492 1776 2006
Human culture evolves in response to changes in the
environment -be it social, economic, technological or
physical changes.

16. Paradigm: A dominant pattern of thought or model in a particular field (ex. Physics,
Government, Art, Law etc.)
Worldviews are generally larger concepts that contain multiple paradigms but some people
use the two terms interchangeably

17. VS.
Ideas are Reality Physical World is Reality
Objects are Illusions Objects are Real
One World
Two Worlds
Freedom
Order
Choice
Fate
Absolute values Relative values
Spiritual-Utopian Scientific-Realist
Moralist Logical