People can emerge with different perceptions of the same object because of three perceptual processes. List and briefly characterize these processes.
Answer: The three processes are selective attention, selective distortion, and selective retention. Selective attention occurs because a person cannot possibly attend to all the stimuli that he or she is exposed to during an average day. Some will be screened out. Selective distortion is the tendency to interpret information in a way that will fit our perceptions. Selective retention occurs because people will fail to register much information to which they are exposed in memory, but will tend to retain information that supports their attitudes and beliefs.