Quote:
Originally Posted by Aaron W.
Can you elaborate? It's hard to parse because you're telling me that I have a "model" of something, but apparently, I keep modeling the wrong thing (or I'm modeling in the wrong way or wrong place).
I think he is trying to get at something or other about modeling in the psychological sense.
Modelling is part of cognitive psychology that covers internal representations of the external world.
It is an attempt to understand how you can think about the world and imagine future possibilities without the world actually being in your head for you to mentally manipulate.
For instance, you can drive across town to a bar you have never been to, because you have a model of the layout of the city in your noggin. Modelling lite* would describe it as kind of sort of like a map in a way.**
Modelling is just an internal representation of the world. It also includes the ability to mentally manipulate the model to imagine "what if" scenarios without going through the expense of trying each potential scenario out.
*As in Miller Lite. Not quite the same as actual beer.
**There is also no actual map in your head.
[long winded aside] Perception and cognitive psychology can be very dense. You don't really actually see with your eyes. Everyone knows that, I think. You see with your brain (ok, your eyes do help and actually do some pretty cool initial "analysis" of the light). The way in which you see (and what you "see") is related to, but not at all the same as what is actually happening in the real world. Your view of the world is shaped by your brain in an entirely unconscious manner. You (unconsciously) fill in blanks, make assumptions, and throw out a huge amount of the information coming in through your eyes. You also unconsciously make "corrections" to reality to make it work better. So, what you see is only related to what it actually there. Some things that are clearly there are not even possible for you to experience.
Cool set of experiments that has been done: Put kitty cats in an environment with only vertical lines. They are incapable of jumping on a table. They are also incapable of avoiding clunking their heads on low tables.
Poor kitties.
Follow up experiment: Put different kitty cats in an environment with only horizontal lines. Put them in a maze. Watch and try not to laugh as they run into each every wall.
Poor different kitties.
Even without the experiments, people are tuned in biologically to notice certain things and ignore other things. Ignore is not quite strong enough of a word. We just don't see them at all.
We see objects that are important to our survival and are completely incapable of even noticing things that are unimportant to survival
I believe I had a point I was trying to make, but I can't remember what it was. Something or other about modelling and perception and cognition.
[/long winded aside]