I read this fascinating fact in Scientific American recently –
Of the virtually unlimited information available in the world around us, the equivalent of 10 billion bits per second arrives on the retina at the back of the eye. Because the optic nerve attached to the retina has only a million output connections, just six million bits per second can leave the retina, and only 10,000 bits per second make it to the visual cortex. After processing, visual information feeds into the brain regions responsible for forming our conscious perception. Surprisingly, the amount of information constituting that conscious perception is less than 100 bits per second.
Wow! The first part of that whole story is startling enough, and one we don’t routinely consider. There is a vast amount of information surrounding us, but we can only pick up the limited amounts which our sensory organs are capable of handling. For example, we don’t see the same spectrum of colours as other creatures – a flower won’t appear to a bee, the way it does to a human! But, then when you consider the rest of this story, look at just how much “data loss” occurs between what the sensory organ can detect and what we can consciously appreciate!
Funnily enough, I’d just recently read the following in “The Renewal of Generosity” by Arthur Frank (ISBN 978-0226260174) –
Dialogue suggests that the world is co-experienced by two of more people. Each one’s perspective is necessarily partial, and each needs to gain a more adequate sense of the world by sharing perspectives.
Wouldn’t it make more sense to respect each others’ perspectives and enter into dialogue, than to assume that our personal (limited) view is THE right one? (I’m just thinking of the way the politicians are acting in this current election month in the UK)
Heroes Not Zombies 
Amazing really how much we discard i wonder if we are consciously filtering I know the police force have done quite a bit of research on this as witness statements vary so much even on basic info , Also as the human retina is so limited in humans and obviously our other senses such as smell , hearing etc are limited , i wonder if this has helped us develop our intuition , that sense sometimes described as the gut feeling . I was on the link to R v L brain and was desperately looking for some L influence ( got a whole lot of boxes to tick ) but alas very R dominated probably why i am on this site and not ticking boxes !!! Must try harder to use whole brain 🙂
Ha! Ha! More box ticking as a therapy?? I can see that one going down well in the NHS!
I remember reading “The White Gloves” by a psychologist called “Kortke” – he had a piece on witness research and that showed that the more questions you asked the more the quality of the answers deteriorated. Fascinating and good evidence for why we should let patients speak freely with as few questions as possible.
Yeah remember i went for an interview for ortho job years ago , interviewer asked me how i could keep patients rolling through every 20mins ? my training kicked in smoothly: question , keep on track, test, examine , order appropriate tests etc etc , got the job easy. One year later almost burned out every clinic running late no job or patient satisfaction.
Now just listen and then usually ask one opening question ; how do you think i can help? Result no more running late and much more satisfaction , only one problem managers noticed productivity and want to cut times to 15 mins !!
[…] I wrote about that from a neuroscience perspective recently here. […]
“For example, we don’t see the same spectrum of colours as other creatures – a flower won’t appear to a bee, the way it does to a human!
Dialogue suggests that the world is co-experienced by two or more people. Each one’s perspective is necessarily partial, and each needs to gain a more adequate sense of the world by sharing perspectives.
Wouldn’t it make more sense to respect each others’ perspectives and enter into dialogue, than to assume that our personal (limited) view is THE right one? (I’m just thinking of the way the politicians are acting in this current election month in the UK)”
– I like the first and second segments tremendously. As to the third, well, I have no idea what politics are like over there right now – so my only thought is, “depends on if they’re viewing the same flower!”