Thinking about thinking!

Fundamental cognitive error – making one interpretation whereas many could have been possible. Our perception is shaped by the sum of our experiences.

Naïve realism – the world is the way they perceive it. But Einstein famously said, Reality is an illusion.  All objects are made of energy; there are no colors in the world for example. Some people actually have hallucinations: seeing things that are not really there.

We commonly use pattern recognition to make sense of the world. Our pattern recognition abilities are shaped by our ability to sharpen things that are consistent with what we expect to see, and level those things that are inconsistent. This effect is known as expectancy effect.

related Ted Talk Video
http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_loftus_the_fiction_of_memory