The Perceptual Process

In my story about my son at Legoland, Chris' epiphany was in his perceptual process, toward the end of it where he realized his evaluation.

The process, the way we perceive others goes through a routine like this:

1. Sensation - Gathering data through our sensory channels. 
2. Organization - Sorting data based on our own frame of reference. 
3. Interpreation - Adding meaning to the data. 
4. Evaluation - Adding value or discounting based on our added meaning of the data. 

And usually the process happens in less time than it takes to say sensation, organization, interpretation, evaluation. 

Chris, in his brand new colorful context of Legoland saw a man smoking a cigarette - sensation. He probably smelled it, as well, something foreign to him. He sorted the sensory input through his little schemata, his frame-of-reference where he makes sense of his surroundings - organization. The only criteria he had for smoking was what he had learned in church, that smoking was not only bad for you, it was a sin to boot, adding meaning to man's action of smoking a cigarette - interpretation. Then, based on the meaning, Chris judged the man - evaluation. 

It's a pretty slick process, one that protects us from the ilk and ills of the world regardless of its inherent fallibility. It works because it so easy to default to, especially when our own schemata are well-fed with a diet of extrinsic influences, instead of our own discernment.