# Our brain interprets everything first Created On: 06-17-2023 09:57 am Up:: [[Psychology (MOC)]] Tags:: #note/evergreen🌲 Topics:: [[Assimilation]] Related:: --- Our brain doesn't see the world as it truly is; our brains are highly interpretive in their function. Couple this with the unlimited variances of sensory interpretation, as a human, it is difficult to see something, whether a picture, a painting, even writing, for what it truly is and means. Our brains are cognitive machines that are attempting to assimilate what you're experiencing with what you already know. Where associations *cannot* be directly made, it creates a leaping off point to a slight variance in your current understanding to house this. A good example of this in action: dogs. At some point in your life, you were introduced to a dog. For example's sake, let's say that was a Golden Retriever. Before that, that was not a dog in your mind because that concept did not yet exist. Someone, likely a parent, told you, "that is a dog". Yet, when you continued living your life, you began to see that not all "dogs" were Golden Retrievers. You could see *similarities* between a Golden Retriever and a Lab, but they were *different enough* to categorize them in your brain as such. That is assimilation: this thing I see is slightly different from the thing I already know, therefore they're related, but different. Having a non-assimilative mind would be exhausting 🤣. Common examples that additionally demonstrate this concept: - Rorschach, or inkblot, tests - Clouds In the examples above, we always "see shapes", don't we? It isn't because those shapes are truly there, it is because **our mind has projected them there as it attempts to assimilate, or give shape, structure, or meaning, to something that... has no meaning, at least to your brain at that time**. This concept, alongside [[Perception]], is the foundation of [[Cognitive Development]] theory. Additionally, the concept of assimilation is foundational to [[Artificial Intelligence (AI)]] training as well, especially when in "automated" form through [[Machine Learning]]. Just like human brains, AI models receive positive or negative feedback that assimilates a concept. This knowledge is stored and can be used on demand to make similar assessments to produce propensity scores. --- #note/question❓ Some of the root thoughts surrounding assimilation could probably be separated into their own link? #note/tidy🧹