paradigm might not be the word you are looking for.. but am i getting closer to the general idea?Yes, you're on to it there, de Troy.
We are quite literally programmed to see what we
expect to see.
Our subconcious is programmed with "schemata" which instantly fill in the blanks when we receive partial information*.
It is an evolutionary survival advantage, but it can lead to a lot of unfairness when we make "snap judgments" about people based on the color of their skin, the way they are dressed, whatever.
Our "schemata" are best illustrated by "optical illusions" such as the one where you are presented with several lines of a cube and you "see" the missing lines. Your mind literally fills in the blanks.
A good example is this "subjective word illusion":
http://www.sandlotscience.com/Contrast/Contrast_frm.htm Then click on #11 in the left margin "Subjective Word".
When we see something for the first time which has always been there, it is because, as you say, there has been a pardigm shift. Something occurred which disrupted our unconscious program.
In effect, the "schemata" has shifted and a new "schemata" has begun to emerge.
The mind also does something which can be quite insidious. It screens out information, beneath the level of consciousness, which does not square with the "schemata".
That means the information which is filtered out by the unconscious is literally invisible to us.
Someone with a different "schemata" which is sensitive to that information will see it, but we won't.
This explains why a black street kid seeing a white cop beat up on a black will literally see something quite different than a white tourist witnessing the same event will see.
Their "schemata" are different. Consequently, what they actually see is different.
They both actually believe that what they are seeing is "the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth" but, the truth is, nothing could be further from the truth.*"Schemata are schemes which allow us to integrate knowledge in ways by linking traits and facts together so that the 'lumpiness' of reality is accurately represented in our minds. Remember, if it quacks like a duck, swims like a duck, and has feathers like a duck, it is probably a duck." .... to which I am impelled to append the obvious. If you have not spent any time by a lake, a river or a marsh, you might mistake a loon for a duck [until you hear him cry].
Personally, I love to hear a loon cry, but that is another story.
"Quacks", on the other hand, are called "quacks" for good reason.
