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Show Standard-Examin- 32' ,M er re i- - and Lakeside Review, Tuesday, April 10, 1990 Perception and the eye of the beholder In the story The Blind Men and the Elephant, six men draw six inaccurate conclusions The story goes on. The elephant is mistakenly identified as a wall, a snake, a fan and a rope. The moral of the story is that every individual perceives things differently. Each of us processes the world around us based on our experiences, attitudes, education, backgrounds and values. What about an elephant. Its a spear, says one, feeling the sharp tusk. No, this is a tree, argues another, trying to wrap his arms around one of the elephants massive hind legs. does the I behind the eye really see? As you consider the four situations described below, think about how perceptions of different people vary. Write a response that one-senten- would be typical of the person we have described. The first set has been completed as an example. , candy bar as seen by: a. a dieter b. a dentist A c. a hungry 13-year-- Response: Response: Response: old Response; "What a temptation! 300 calories!" Response: "Sugar is bad for your teeth." Response: "Delicious! Can have another?" I An overflowing garbage can as seen a. a garbageman b. an ecologist by: c. a spy Response: Response: Response: Storm clouds as seen by: a. a weatherman b. a bride-to-b- e c. a surfer A Response: run-dow- n, haunted-lookin- g by: Response: ' old house as seen a. teenagers in the neighborhood b. people living next door c. a real estate salesperson Response: MTV .. as seen by: Response: Response: Response: a. a teenager b. your grandmother c. a classical musician Determining what is relevant and what is not Problems you solve in school are often packed with some of which information you dont need to come up with a correct answer. Effective problem solvers take the time to ask themselves, Is there irrelevant information in this problem, information that I dont really need? For example: One rabbit eats 3 pounds of food a week. There are 52 weeks in a year. How much food will six rabbits eat in one week? Your answen Were you tempted to use all three numbers? Many problem solvers are. Given this problem h of the to solve, participating in a recent survey multiplied 3 X 52 X 6. And, they arrived at a totally unreasonable answer. The fact that there are 52 weeks in a year is just not relevant. Practice looking for relevant and irrelevant information with the following activity. First, read the following paragraph: Sally gets paid on an hourly basis. She is trying to figure out whether or not her one-fourt- paycheck was correct. She did not work the same number of hours this week as last week. Iler friend Jean is trying to help her. Which of Jeans ucstions are relevant to allys problem? Read Jeans questions below, Then, circle the letters of the choices A through H that are relevant to solving Sallys problem. The answers appear on page 16. A. How many hours did you work each day? B. Did you get an invitation to Lous party next week? C. Does the payroll office often make mistakes? D. Are you supposed to get overtime rates for some of the hours you worked? E. Will you get the raise you asked for? F. Will you be able to take part of your vacation next week? G. How much is your regular hourly rate? H. Will the company do anything about it if you find out they made a mistake in your check? Reprinted with permission from inductive Thinking Skills, west Publications. Pacific Grove. California. Mid- 7 |