Psychological 
Aspects 
So much is sure, if there is an 
  
input into the systen, there will have 
  
to be an output - if perceiving something, it is in general with a 
purpose. Thus a decision has to be made; these aspects are here called 
"Chservation"e 
[mis decision stage, from which the output directly results, is 
distinctly different from the processing of information, called Thinking. 
However, the author needs to consult another Penguin, as The Psychology 
of Thinking (Robert Thomson), to be able to say more about it.) 
EXPECTATION, the mental activity which guides the 
  
   
  
visual activities, results from the foregoing step: as 
soon as certain preliminary decisions have been made, N 9 
the mind activates the visual sense to check & further " 
hypothesis, a more detailed one, or a completely 
different idea. 
Human beings see actively, they project their ideas 
and expectations onto the object, with the great risk 
that they do not see things which they did not expect, where they do not 
know the existence of. 
A photograph of such a familiar object as a female face is hardly 
recognized or even identified if presented upside down. And if it is seen 
at all, it is probably associated with a typical OOT scenery. 
[Expectation cannot go much beyond the ideas and thought which 
are already belonging to a person's cultural and intellectual 
baggage. This supports the ability to react much quicker on 
familiar objects and signals than on strange phenomena. But the 
same principle slows down progress along new lines of thinking, 0 © 
because unexpected messages are not received, the filter of - 
expectation blocks those inputs for which no mesh is available. 
This very mechanism makes people conservative, not only in 
politics, but in the profession too.] 
  
  
The seven topics discussed in this psychological group are a free 
selection; any scholar would probably take some different properties 
when presenting a cross section through the field. 
The leading principle of this group is well expressed by the title and 
undertitle of Broadbent's excellent paper in Sciences "Information 
Processing in the Nervous System: the nervous system, limited in its 
ability to process sensory data, must operate selectively and econo- 
mically" (Broadbent 1965).