The Filtering Traits
Dec 3, 2014
The Pattern Recognition Personality Filter
Offered by David Apollo
Introduction
We start each Personality Spectrum Filter discussion by reminding the reader again what ConserveLiberty means by a Personality Filter. ← Click there.The Big Picture
Now that the declaration that "our personality filters have an organic, genetic basis" is out of the way ... some clarifying emphasis is still in order.
Importantly, by no means should it be construed or implied that this phenotype spectrum is the result of a single gene.
Rather, an ensemble of biological parts are necessary to be expressed and put together just right so that a person's individual place on the Pattern Recognition Spectrum is determined.
So let's dive into the Pattern Recognition Personality Filter (aka the Pattern Recognizer Filter).
When discussing this filter, we must be careful to define what we mean by "Pattern Recognition." It is here that the English language doesn't serve us very well. (Again.) There are only so many terms that can be used. And, these very same terms can and have been used legitimately to mean subtly different things. Not only this, since you (the reader) and I (the writer) also come with different filter sets, we are likely going to approach the term "Pattern Recognition" differently.
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If I were to choose an alternate term, I might instead refer to the Pattern Recognition Personality Filter as the Discrimination Filter, as this personality trait actively seeks to recognize patterns and discriminate between appropriate actions or conclusions as a result of habituated, repeated experience.
It is a trait that many of us have in common with dogs, perhaps the ultimate pattern recognizers.
As will often be the case, we will use extremes to define our personality filters. Since people exist along a spectrum with regard to the expression of these filters, it will be rare to find someone who fits all descriptions of the extreme case. And, other filters may be present and expressed sufficiently that they may mask a filter that is being only partially expressed.
Agreeing that we will not over-generalize the extent of a filter when suspected to be significantly present, let's define the Pattern Recognition Spectrum Personality Filter in terms of what we might see when it is dialed up to 80% or so in an individual.Multiple Filters In Play
We would see in an 80% (approx) dialed up individual (strong Pattern Recognition Personality Filter) the following tendencies:
- a strong ability to detect meaningful relationships or patterns between things or events that repeatedly occur concurrently or sequentially with one another. Often, the pattern is recognized after seeing it for only the second time.
- comfortable predicting, anticipating, or prognosticating confidently a future outcome based on recognition of similar circumstances in the past.
- a very quick confusion when exposed to non-sequitured communication (communication that states something that is not relevant to or does not follow rationally from the topic being discussed)
- an uncanny ability to "find Waldo", proofread for spelling and grammatical errors, and assemble puzzles.
It is here that, depending on the expressing filter sets, there might be confusion with our readership here. Almost everyone asserts that they find correlations or patterns in things. I'm absolutely sure that they feel that way. And, they would be correct. Most of us all share the Pattern Recognition or Discrimination trait to some degree. Which is the key point. For some, the "degrees" are dialed up (or down) more than others.
- For some, they detect and find relationships in the sense that the Pattern Recognition Filter urges one.
- For others, they may have the Discrimination Filter firing, but other Filter instincts are also present that may be interfering.
- For still others, they may genuinely not instinctively perceive the relationship patterns in the sense defined above, even though under other circumstances they could be compelled to see them.
- Finally, for still others, their spectrum setting for the Pattern Recognition or Discrimination Filter is low enough that they cannot truly see relationships at all. Even though, in their activities of preference choosing and decision making they may believe that they are acting on learned relationships, those relationships may have been taught to them by others rather than discovered or recognized by themselves.
There are a few other personality filters that are relevant to (work together with to enhance or diminish) the Pattern Recognition phenotype. Links will be provided as they are defined. These are:Moving Forward
- The Skepticism Personality Filter - when strong, is focused on Truth, and the general need to verify what is being stated as truth, or thought to be observed as a pattern.
- The Faith Personality Filter - when strong, tends to believe without additional rational confirmation. When combined with the expression of the Pattern Recognition Filter, there may be a tendency to jump to conclusions about the robustness or credibility of the patterns one thinks they see before true confirmation has been made about them.
- The Intelligence Personality Filter - when strong, the general ability to learn material and retain it. That's going to be a plus for helping out with the pattern recognition bit.
- The Imaginative (or Creative) Personality Filter - when strong, the ability to craft novel explanations or proposals from learned material that is different from the explanations given generally or by an authority figure. Imagine - one could imagine a pattern "being there" when it is not there (or not there much) at all. On the other hand, often we do not see what we are not looking for. A strong imagination can open up the ability to see patterns that we would not ordinarily be ready to see.
Now, each one of the filters above are also possessed by most. However, since they, like Pattern Discrimination, are also Spectrum Filters, each of us expresses their phenotypes to greater or lesser degrees as well. As discussed elsewhere, each individual has its own spectrum setting for each behavioral or perceptive phenotype.
This leads to a recognition conundrum, as it does with other filters.
We could take any Filter as an example, but since this is a chapter on the Pattern Recognition, lets elaborate on this difficulty with the Pattern Recognition Spectrum Personality Filter.
While a number of other Spectrum Filters impact the perception of the Pattern Recognition, we'll choose one for illustration - The Faith Personality Filter.
It is often said (usually by those who do not possess a strong The Skepticism Personality Filter) that those with a strong (true) Pattern Recognition Filter do not have a strong Faith filter. (Recall our example that we linked to above.) While that may occasionally be accurate, the general truth of the matter is that the situation is marginally more complex. Often, individuals with a strong Pattern Recognition filter (for picking up bona fide true patterns, not imaginary ones) are VERY much aware of the Faith (e.g. need to believe in the absence of true factual proof) aspects of an issue. Their Pattern Recognition filter, however, confounds the recognition of their operating Faith Filter by people who have a strong faith Filter but a lower Skeptical Filter and lower Pattern Recognition Filter expression.
Folks without strong Pattern Recognition and The Skepticism Personality Filters cannot appreciate the importance of their influence because they cannot see it. The strong pattern recognizer with strong skepticism simply has a need to verify what he or she is thinking they might perceive in the patterns they see.
When folks without these strong instincts see someone supercede the instinctive urge of the The Faith Personality Filter with the instinctive (and helpful) urge of the Skepticism Filter, they simply see the diminishment of "faith." They interpret this as denial. Denial for the purpose of simply being difficult, or because they "do not have the eyes or heart to believe" a thing. They have little ability to appreciate that the reason that Pattern Recognition and Skepticism has been allowed to supercede Faith is because in that instance it is perceived by the individual with the strong recognition and verification Filters as being more helpful in getting to an outcome where even greater FAITH or belief may be assured!
At a later date, this section may be updated to discuss further our sharing of the Pattern Recognition and Discrimination Personality Spectrum Filter with other animals, such as canines and bears.
Check out other Filter posts
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