It naturally figures that the amount of information that we can actually see at any given point in time is quite small. Neurologists agree that we construct what we need to see in the moment. It isn’t necessarily what’s there. Your brain fills in the gaps, it projects your feelings and emotions and experiences onto a situation before it interprets.
Therefore, who we are is influencing what we see. We see things as we are, not necessarily as it is. This brings about a deviation from the reality based on our past experiences, our beliefs (and prejudices) and generally what we ‘expect’ to see; sometimes the worst, sometimes the best.
That's where certain famously or infamously used rhetorical phrases crop from i.e "What did I ever see in that guy?", "How could I have forgotten about that?", "I can't seem to remember my password".
Here are some tricks that your brain plays on you:
1. Ear-worms
Have you ever had something incredibly terrible yet catchy stuck in your head for days at a time? This horrible phenomenon is referred to as 'earworm'. This is as a result of your brain getting stuck in a loop. You have probably been in a situation where you remember one verse of whatever catchy song you are stuck with almost perfectly, but don’t know the rest of the song as well.
2. "I don't know exactly why, I just know it is bad"
A common phrase right? Most of us have very strong beliefs and opinions on various varying contentious issues such as political ideologies, religious beliefs, global warming, gay marriages, sexual promiscuity, and abortion, just to mention a few. But when asked about these issues, most people’s brains just sit there sluggishly, unable to properly explain why they felt so strongly about an issue.
3. Spatial confusion
Do you rely on your GPS to get everywhere? Do you even use it to navigate to familiar places? Then this could be a problem. Most of us are always under the illusion that we actually know exactly where we are at any particular time. But when given a reference point and asked to point to its general direction, very few can get this fact right.
4. Sympathetic pain
This is the kind of pain that is derived from experiencing someone else's pain. Have you ever heard or seen someone slam their foot in the door or hid their head on the edge of a window frame and winced in pain even though nothing happened to you? This is our brain mirroring the pain to achieve a sympathetic response.
5. False memories
Ever remembered a certain event vividly but totally different from how everyone else remembers it? The reason we are so easily fooled is because our minds try to take in everything in our surroundings but inevitably fail, which leads to gaps in memory. To deal with these gaps, our minds automatically plant whatever false memories they think make sense based on our current knowledge and experience.
6. Sleep drunkenness
Ever realized that if you go for long enough without sleep, the results can be quite similar to being drunk?This is as a result of your brain getting confused and leaving you in a state that is halfway between sleeping and waking.
7. Blind to change
Ever wondered how someone you just saw going the other way came from a totally different direction? This is possible since so much is going on in the world at any given moment it can be hard for the brain to take in every detail. As a result, it's sometimes very easy to completely miss major changes that happen right in front of our eyes.