Perceptions-closure

These television commercials shown on television recently caught my attention as they are quite interesting and unique. They play with a concept of what i learned during communication lectures about perception and closure. Which is the tendency to fill in the missing pieces of a puzzle by mentally completing it so as to make sense of it and is influenced mainly by our expectations, perceptual tendencies and past experiences.
The first advertisement of the worst restaurant by a local radio station is very interesting as it cause us to form a conclusion before seeing the entire picture. The scene being set in a kitchen of a restaurant and a guy in chef attire seems to be doing something that we cant see, with the effect of the sounds it seems like he was peeing into a pot. This plays with our mind as we know that in restaurants we do not know how our dishes are being prepared so for all we know the above perceived scene might just be what is really happening in a restaurant and hence we draw the conclusion that the chef in the scene is peeing into a pot possibly for making a dish. However towards the end of the commercial we realize that he was just pouring an ingredient into the pot in an awkward position. Upon completion of the advertisement, i realize that it was sort of telling me not to jump into conclusions by just deduction from what we see but only conclude when we see the whole picture.
The second advertisements is a very intellectual advertisement as it plays with word play by removing words from a sentence in such a way that it comes up with a totally different meaning. The driving instructor was giving bad comments about the learning driver, however in the ears of the learning driver we hear words omitted from the sentence in such a way from a bad comment it becomes a positive comment for her. This commercial in some ways plays with closure, whereby in our mind we help to connect the sentences together even though the omitted words we left we empty space and we join the sentence together in out mind.
From these two above commercials we can see clearly how the concept of closure works. From jumping into conclusion in the first advertisement to helping connect the sentence in the second advertisement. These advertisements are also good in the sense that in the first example we can learn from it that we should not jump into conclusion by looking at one scene and should instead wait to see the whole picture. And from the second advertisements, leaving out simple words in a sentence can cause a totally different meaning altogether. I sure hope to see more of such entertaining and educational commercials on our local television.

On the Road - Nonverbal Communication

Listening to communication lecture this week about perception and non-verbal communication this week, what came up to my mind was the perceptions and amazing non-verbal communication on the road. Not having to speak face to face with each other yet understanding what the driver in the car wants to do is quite amusing and interesting.
First up what i want to talk about in this entry is about perceptions of the kind of cars and what kind of drivers drive those cars. People come up with conclusions that those drivers with with souped up cars with fanciful car decals are hell drivers who are nothing but danger and trouble when we see them and the road, and as my dad would always tell me to avoid these drivers. Its true a large number of drivers driving these cars are speed monsters but quite amazingly i have met some who have been courteous on the road too and there was once an encounter whereby one such driver actually signaled and gave way for me to cut into his lane which i thought was a really nice gesture. That prompt me to reconsider the perception that the drivers of all these souped up cars are demons on the roads but maybe they are just car lovers who love to do up their cars just like how someone would like to decorate their home. To add in on this topic of graciousness on the road, i have to say that what i observe on the road most of the time is that those uncles in their big mercedes benz or BMWs are the ungracious drivers who constantly speed and honk unncessarily on the road. I guess that maybe they have the thinking that they paid more for their COE taxes and drive bigger and more luxurious cars hence they are at a class higher above than others and others should give way to them. Hence the perception that those driving souped up cars are road demons, people should think twice again before coming to a definitive conclusion.
It makes me wonder who came up with the idea of red means stop and green means go and why not other colors like blue and white or any other colors. I guess maybe they chose red and green as they were the fundamental colors and the more obvious colors to human eyes so it would be easier for us to notice.
Another non-verbal communication that is often seen on the road is anger, there are a few ways i have seen and heard of anger being shown on the road. The most common and obvious way of display of anger is the pressing of the horn, people press their horn may it be in the way of danger or when they are frustrated with their fellow drivers. Being stuck in a traffic jam it is always common to hear the constant sounds of horns urging the driver in front to inch forward and normally it is accompanied by a disgruntled face when i turn around to look at the driver. I have to admit that i personally too am a person who occasionally make use of the horn to show my displeasure and it is something i have to curb myself from because looking back at it pressing of the horn at someone is not very pleasant and we should practice road courtesy.
The non-verbal communication of anger that i have heard of quite commonly on the road yet have not encountered such situation yet is the display of the middle finger to someone else on the road. Have heard of such situations told to me from my friends from unruly drivers who when displeased with someone on the road would press repeatedly on their horn and give the middle finger. Personally i feel that this is a very unpleasant and ungracious thing to do and it shows what kind of ill-mannered the person is as even though someone might have committed a mistake on the road one should not give the person the finger.