Let's dive into the fascinating concept that our brain is constantly trying to predict sensory inputs, which in turn shapes our perception and experience. Have you ever thought you heard your cell phone vibrating or birds chirping when there was actually no sound? This is a perfect example of how our expectations can influence our perception. Our brain isn't just sitting back and taking in sensory data. Instead, it's actively trying to predict and imagine the sensations that are about to come our way. It's like our brain is constantly comparing its predictions to the actual sensory inputs we receive. Any errors or mismatches are then used to update our brain's internal models.

Now, this idea of predictive processing is quite different from the older models that likened our brain to a 'smart camera', where information only flowed one way. In reality, there's a constant two-way communication happening in our brains. Predictions are sent down, and any errors are sent back up to correct them. This is a highly efficient process, as it allows our brain to focus only on the unexpected news, rather than having to process everything from scratch. These predictions are based on our prior experiences and learning. We're constantly trying to predict the world around us to get better at predicting it. Perception, then, is the result of selecting the best predictions, not just passively receiving stimuli.

Let's look at some examples of how our expectations can alter even our basic perceptions of things like sounds and images. Remember the viral dress meme where people saw different colors? This can be explained by differing assumptions about lighting conditions. In essence, perception is inference. We're guessing the probable causes of ambiguous sensory data based on our past experiences.