Perception in Decision Making

10 Key excerpts on "Perception in Decision Making"

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  A Primer on Organizational Behavior

  • James L. Bowditch, Anthony F. Buono, Marcus M. Stewart(Authors)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  While some people might behave in ways that go against personal goals and competencies, most tend to react quite defensively when their beliefs and values are threatened. Such threat often leads to the use of the perceptual defenses discussed earlier. Thus, while we may perceive an individual’s behavior as illogical or even self-defeating, it usually makes sense to that particular individual since people generally make choices that are consistent with their self-concepts. Perception, Individual Differences, and Decision Making As indicated by the preceding discussion, perception refers to the process by which individuals receive, organize, and interpret information from their environment. In terms of making effective decisions, managers must first obtain information from their organizations (peers, subordinates, their managers) and environments (such as cus- tomers, suppliers, and other critical stakeholders), and then accurately interpret those data through the perception process. Although many discussions of managerial deci- sion making suggest that it should be a conscious, rational, and systematic process, with a number of precise steps (including defining and diagnosing the problem, specifying decision objectives, developing and appraising alternative solutions, and then choosing and implementing the best course of action), 48 individuals with different personalities and self-concepts differ in the ways in which they approach such decision making. 49 In one sense, individuals are constraints in the decision-making process. The deci- sions that managers make are strongly affected by their values, beliefs, competencies, goals, and personalities. Thus, to understand why certain decisions emerge from a group or organization, it is important to examine the premises of the individuals in- volved in making those decisions. Organizational members, for example, differ in terms

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  Sports Psychology

  Concepts and Applications

  • S. K. Mangal, Shubhra Mangal(Authors)
  • 2023(Publication Date)
  • Routledge India

    (Publisher)

  Perception provides the necessary link in terms of process for converting input into output by organising and interpreting the sensory impressions. Perception is the information extractor: Our sensory receptors are bombarded continuously by various stimuli present in our environment. It is impossible to react to all stimulation. A selection process is therefore essential. Perception performs this duty by extracting relevant information out of a jumble of sensory impressions and converting it into some meaningful pattern. Perception is preparation to respond: Perception is the first step toward the active behaviour of an organism. It is the stage that prepares an individual for action and response. Our sensory receptors are just the receiving and transmitting centres of the sensory information. How we should react and respond is ordered by our central nervous system through the involvement of some mediating activity known as perception. Perception involves sensation: In a simple and straightforward way, we may sense that sensation precedes perception. The relationship between sensation and perception is always direct: that is, what we have in sensation is always a part of perception. Perception goes beyond sensation as it organises, interprets, and gives meaning to the results of sensations. Therefore, to a student of psychology, perception means assigning meaning to sensory stimuli. Sensation attached to meaning is thus termed perception. Perception provides organisation: In addition to the help provided in deriving meaning from sensory impressions, perception also helps in their proper arrangement and organisation. This arrangement or organisation reflects a particular pattern rather than being merely a summation of the sensory impressions. What one perceives, they perceive as a whole in an organised pattern and not as the sum total of various stimuli. Perception is highly individualised: Perception is an individual affair

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  Artificial Human Sensors

  Science and Applications

  • Peter Wide(Author)
  • 2012(Publication Date)
  • Jenny Stanford Publishing

    (Publisher)

  Chapter Three The Perception The definition of the word perception from the aspect of natural science may be expressed as: physical sensation interpreted in the light of experience (Encyclopædia Britannica -Merriam-Webster Dictionary). This definition, how-ever, does not take into account the massive and complex structure that humans perceive with all their senses. The definition below may be considered more gen-eral and involves the smelling and tasting abilities, which in no sense can be con-sidered as physical sensations, since they are based on chemical substances. The interpretation of sensory information using both the raw data detected by the senses and previous experiences (Oxford Reference Online -A Dictionary of Biology in Biological Science). How-ever, one of the most describing definitions of the human perception process can be a slightly modified version of the definition found in Encarta Encyclopedia. The description of the word perception is: perceiving is the process of using the senses to acquire information about the surround-ing environment or situation ; within the range of human perception. The psychological related definition of the human perception may be related to a neurological process of observation and interpretation through the sensing or-gans. Any neurological process of acquiring and mentally interpreting information from the human senses is concerning the; – recognition and interpretation of sensory stimuli, based mainly on capacity of the memory. – insight, intuition, or knowledge gained by perceiving. – the capacity for such insight regarding the handling of a huge information flow. 3.1 INTRODUCTION In psychology, and also cognitive sciences, the meaning of the perception concept, is the process of attaining awareness or the understanding of sensory information Artificial Human Sensors — Science and Applications by P. Wide Copyright c 2012 by Pan Stanford Publishing Pte Ltd www.panstanford.com 978-981-4241-58-8

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  Consumer Behaviour and the Arts

  A Marketing Perspective

  • François Colbert, Alain d'Astous, Alain d’Astous(Authors)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  PART 3

  EXPERIENCE

  Passage contains an image

  Chapter 3

  Perception

  DOI: 10.4324/9780429263118-6

  In marketing and social sciences, it is common to view perception as a process one can define with a set of steps and a clear linear sequence (e.g., Solomon, 2017 ). This view holds that a variety of stimuli (images, sounds, odours, etc.) reach the senses of the consumer (sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch) before being selected, organized, and then interpreted by the brain. This sequence constitutes what is called the perceptual experience.

  Although, as we shall see further on, this view of perception is not consistent with many results from psychology research—notably, that perception is usually immediate and deep—it is useful for how it distinguishes three fundamental themes one must integrate into any discussion of perceptual experience: selective perception, perceptual organization, and interpretation. We will address each of these themes in turn.

  Selective perception

  Consumers are exposed to a considerable number of stimuli of all kinds. It is logically impossible for them to take everything into account, so they must be selective. The process of selecting information in the environment is either voluntary (e.g., a given person may choose to mute the ad appearing on her smartphone before the broadcast of a news report) or involuntary (e.g., when we hear a fire alarm being triggered). Beyond these two obvious conditions of selective perception, there also exists a process of automatic selection, that is, selection based on a person’s objectives, motivations, or psychic state. For example, a consumer who likes a particular brand will tend to perceive (and no doubt also remember) more positive information in that brand’s advertising than will a different person who is resistant to it. From this perspective, it becomes clear that perception is a fundamentally individual process.

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  Creating Entrepreneurial Space

  Talking Through Multi-Voices, Reflections on Emerging Debates

  • David Higgins, Paul Jones, Pauric McGowan(Authors)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • Emerald Publishing Limited

    (Publisher)

  Clarysse, Brunel, & Wright, 2011 ). We argue that taking an information processing perspective will contribute towards a better understanding of the relationship between these situational and individual characteristics in decision-making (Barbosa, 2014), by focussing on the cognitions of the individual entrepreneur. We ask the research question ‘How do entrepreneurs make decisions when evaluating business growth opportunities and what information processes or cognitive styles influence their decision-making?’

  We examined how entrepreneurs evaluated and made these decisions over a two-year time period, using a dual process theoretical approach. This makes a valuable addition to the entrepreneurial cognition literature, as existing studies on opportunity evaluation and decision-making have mostly taken a more rational, rule-based approach. Using cognitive style as the research lens has enabled us to capture the different ways individual entrepreneurs processed information and provided greater insight into the structural changes seen in their cognitions. Understanding how this emerged over time will show how intuitive and analytical cognitive styles are used by the individual, the contribution these styles make to decision-making and their relevance to understanding entrepreneurs and their behaviour. This study also answers a call for mixed methods (Cools & Van den Broeck, 2007 , 2008 ) to enhance and strengthen qualitative findings in the field of cognitive style and decision-making research.

  In order to examine the research question, we used a repeated measures approach to explore the richness of the decision-making process. Each entrepreneur was tracked over a two-year period at six monthly intervals, from January 2015 to January 2017. The development of the decision-making process, from the initial perception of the opportunity to final decision, was explored using cognitive style as the research lens. Semi-structured interviews were analysed using cognitive mapping techniques and psychometric questionnaires to assess cognitive style. We have answered the call for more longitudinal, qualitative work in the field of cognitive style and small business growth (Cools & Van den Broeck, 2007) and a mixed method approach to enhance and strengthen qualitative findings (Cools & Van den Broeck, 2008

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  Managing Organizations

  Current Issues

  • Stewart R Clegg, Cynthia Hardy, Walter R Nord, Stewart R Clegg, Cynthia Hardy, Walter R Nord(Authors)
  • 1999(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications Ltd

    (Publisher)

  Decisions are a core unit of activity for both understanding and changing individual beha-vior in organizations. Historically, behavioral researchers have debated whether the person or the situation is more influential in the particular behavioral responses of individuals. This debate has led to the proposal that the way in which the individual perceives, filters, and conceptualizes information is critical to how he or she responds to situations; these responses in turn change the nature of their interaction and enact their perceptions of the environment (Weick 1992). This view emphasizes the importance of devel-oping better models of decision making and cognition to understand behavior in organiza-tions. COGNITIONS IN ORGA NIZA TIONS 65 The values described above underlie many of the judgments that we will make throughout the chapter. We will return to these values when we evaluate the cognitive perspective of OB near the end of the chapter. PSYCHOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF COGNITIVE RESEA RCH IN ORGANIZATI ONS Two primary research areas of psychology -social cognition and behavioral decision theory -have served to inform organizational research-ers in their attempts to understand the influence of human cognitions on OB. While there may be overlap between these two perspectives, there are also some sharp differences in orientation. Social cognition research is a purely descriptive field which tries to explain how people make sense of the world. Behavioral decision research, while also being a descriptive field, uses normative models such as 'straw men' to explain imperfec-tions in human decision processes. Where the broader interpretative process is the focus of the social cognition area, the decision is the key unit of action in BDT. Our review of these two areas will highlight some of the key differences between BDT and social cognition in terms of their influence on OB.

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  A Theory of Behavior in Organizations

  • James C. Naylor, Robert D. Pritchard, Daniel R. Ilgen(Authors)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Academic Press

    (Publisher)

  Each process mechanism is needed to provide a satisfactory explanation for rational behavior. However, it is not neces-91 4 92 A Theory of Behavior in Organizations Initial Perceptions T h e initial process point in the theory is point A in Figure 4.1. This is the process point at which the individual forms his or her initial percep-tions of the entire stimulus world, as was pointed out in the original discussion of the theory in Chapter 2. This perceptual process consists of the process of descriptive judgment. Basic perceptions (cognitions) about the environment are the result of an internal measurement system within the individual, analogous to the measurement system operating in the environment. This internal measurement system responds to the stimuli impinging on our senses and quantifies them into definable, under-standable cognitive states or events. This measurement can either be rudimentary (stimulus present or stimulus absent) or sophisticated, but in either case the process of measurement is judgmental, in which the individual assesses the incoming stimulus characteristics and uses them to locate the stimulus on a descriptive continuum. This exact processing stage provided the context for Egon Brunswik's (1943) original work on probabalistic functionalism and the lens model paradigm as a descriptive model for the perceptual process. Although it is not our purpose to review extensively the empirical evidence underly-ing the appropriateness or utility of the descriptive judgmental process as a model for the main cognitive mechanism operating at this stage, it is nevertheless strongly substantiated by the work on person perception by Hammond et al. (1975), Brehmer (1970), Nystedt (1974), and others, as well as by the considerable work in the general area of what Naylor and Wherry (1964) have referred to as policy capturing (e.g., see the work of Goldberg, 1970).

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  The SAGE Handbook of Organization Studies

  • Stewart R Clegg, Cynthia Hardy, Tom Lawrence, Walter R Nord, Stewart R Clegg, Cynthia Hardy, Tom Lawrence, Walter R Nord(Authors)
  • 2006(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications Ltd

    (Publisher)

  This debate has led to the proposal that the way in which the individual perceives, filters, and conceptualizes information is critical to how he or she responds to situations; these responses in turn change the nature of their interaction and enact their perceptions of the envi-ronment (Weick 1992). This view emphasizes the importance of developing better models of deci-sion-making and cognition to understand behav-iour in organizations. The values described above underlie many of the judgements that we will make throughout the chapter. We will return to these values when we evaluate the cognitive perspective of OB near the end of this chapter. Psychological Foundations of Cognitive Research in Organizations Two primary research areas of psychology – social cognition and behavioural decision theory – have served to inform organizational researchers in their attempts to understand the influence of human cognitions on OB. While there may be overlap between these two perspectives, there are also some sharp differences in orientation. Social cognition research is a purely descriptive field that tries to explain how people make sense of the world. Behavioural decision research, while also being a descriptive field, uses normative models as a base by which to identify and, subsequently explain the sys-tematic imperfections in human decision processes. Where the broader interpretive process is the focus of the social cognition area, the decision is the key unit of action in BDT. Our review of these two areas will highlight some of the key differences between BDT and social cognition in terms of their influence on OB. As our goal is to provide a suffi-cient appreciation of the backgrounds of these basic literatures to evaluate the developments that have occurred within OB, we will not provide compre-hensive reviews of these two fields. However, we will suggest where such reviews can be found.

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  Criminal Investigative Failures

  • D. Kim Rossmo(Author)
  • 2008(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Finally, data that do not fit the bias or context and cannot easily be ignored are dismissed and explained away, and weighting of disconfirming data is low. These and other manifestations of bias and cognitive influences can make perception, judgment, and decision making unreliable. They are Human Perception, Judgment, and Decision Making 57 well researched and documented by many scientific studies (e.g., Balcetis & Dunning, 2006; Cordelia, 2006; Ditto & Lopez, 1992; Edwards & Smith, 1996; Evans, 1989; Gilovich et al., 2002; Haselton, Nettle, & Andrews, 2005; Hogarth, 1980; Kahneman et al., 1982; Koriat, Lichtenstein, & Fischhoff, 1980; Kunda, 1990; Nickerson, 1998; Nisbett & Ross, 1980; Tversky & Kahneman, 1974; Zhaoping & Guyader, 2007). The criminal justice system, for example, has in many ways adopted and taken on board these and other cognitive and psychological findings to improve investigations (e.g., Ask & Granhag, 2005; Risinger & Loop, 2002; Stelfox & Pease, 2005). A clear case is the way in which line-ups are conducted. Rather than biasing eyewitnesses by presenting them with the suspect (the target), eyewitnesses are presented with a range of targets that include the suspect as well as numerous decoys. The line-up procedures have been drastically improved by taking into account issues of bias and other cognitive and psychological influences (e.g., Charman & Wells, 2006; Turtle, Lindsay, & Wells, 2003; Wells & Olson, 2003). In this chapter we present cogni-tive theory and bridge it to practical situations in the real world of investiga-tions. Of course, within the scope of this chapter we can only bring examples, as illustrations, to convey the complex issues at hand. Initial Impressions and Accountability Research indicates that early impressions have considerable influence on our final evaluations. Indeed, it is common for people to maintain preex-isting beliefs despite dissonant or even contradictory evidence.

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  Acquisition and Performance of Sports Skills

  • Terry McMorris(Author)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  Although sports require the individual to be intuitive at times and analytic at other times, no research has, so far, been carried out examining the ability of individuals in the centre of the field dependent/independent continuum compared to those at the two extremes. The failure to do this is also surprising given the fact that, in sport, some displays are embedded, in Witkin’s meaning of the word, and some displays are not.

  Summary

  From an information processing viewpoint, perception is indirect or inferred. It is dependent mainly on experience, although innate abilities will have some effect. Memory plays a large role in the way in which we solve perceptual problems, as does perceptual style. The key issue would appear to be selective attention and how we are able to attend to relevant stimuli while disregarding irrelevant ones.

  Ecological psychology and perception

  To the information processing theorists, perception precedes action and the two are separate. To the ecological psychologists, perception does not end before action is undertaken, it continues to be activated in order control the movement. This is part of what the ecological psychologists call perception–action coupling, but it is only part of it. The other part is that perception, itself, is not carried out in isolation from action. Action is necessary for perception to take place. Gibson (1979) argued that we perceive to act, and act to perceive. In this section, we are concerned with the perception–action coupling that affects the initial perception of affordances. In Chapter 5 , we examine the perception–action coupling affecting our ability to anticipate, and in Chapter 6 , we look at the interaction with regard to motor control.

  According to Gibson, perception is only possible if we actively

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