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So a humans perception of reality must be formed since birth - and initially when the child is young 'reality' is simply imposed on him. If reality is imposed on humans when they are born, then how could they possibly determine their own reality?

However, what is reality? What is the reality that is imposed upon humans, as children or as adults?

Children theoretically have less cognitive ability than adults, however that is simply related to how intelligent they are - they might have a similar level of technical ability, or even greater skill and ability to learn technical things - by technical ability there I mean an amount of competency that deals with the management of physical objects. They also might have greater skill that is adaptive, like the ability to play video games. That skill requires a lot of ability to understand what is going on in the game, and what the rules are about how the game is played that adults might not be able to figure out because it requires a more creative type of intellect that is also adaptive.

Or perhaps the 'reality' in video games is one that is simply more attuned to the world of a child and isn't suited for adults. The young adults hand-eye coordination is faster and that is obviously why they could perform better at the video games, however if you consider what a 'reality' is then a 'reality' could be any world that needs to be understood, imaginative or real.

What is reality - and what influences it?

What is reality? And what influences reality? Human beings are in reality, human interaction is an important part of human emotion - however, how could I define what 'reality' is?

Is reality simply human beings and the ideas that they hold? Or is reality interpersonal communication? Why does phrasing reality that way mean what it does? On that account, what would even be the definition of reality?

Reality would usually mean what is considered to be 'real'. The world is real, human beings are real, and the physical objects in the world are real. I wrote a lot of articles about emotion and cognition, and clearly emotion and what influences human thought is incredibly significant for how they feel, and how a human being feels and his or her consciousness is going to be what the reality is for them - however reality usually refers to the external elements in the world which happen to determine the persons thoughts and feelings, instead of implying that the person determines their own thoughts and feelings, using the word 'reality' implies that the world imposes order on them from their environment and then that is what determines their reality.

Intentions

Interpersonal interaction is a large part of life, or 'reality'. People function and part of that cognitive functioning involves interacting with other humans. Other humans are part of peoples visual field (what they see) and their minds influence how emotions and feelings from the other person are interpreted.

How does someones mind 'interpret' emotion? Is feeling simply felt, or is feeling interpreted? What does that mean exactly anyway? If feeling is interpreted, then it isn't literal - by that I would think that that means that feeling things isn't simple. What would be gained by determining if feeling something is simple or complex? What would be the difference between a 'complicated' feeling and a 'simple' feeling?

Feelings are obviously tied in with a higher 'cognitive' type of understanding, and that could help to make the feelings more complex - because the thought structures and idea groupings influence which emotions are felt. In that way emotion and thought are intertwined - people think things, and those thoughts are linked with emotions that influence their feelings.

Feelings and reality

What would happen if reality influenced someones feelings? Could that be compared to the world 'pressing' in on someone? How could that be visualized? Can 'reality' be visualized? There could be artistic representations of the world, however I wouldn't think that the image of a globe or map or an image of the planet from outer space would properly represent 'reality'.

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Source:  OpenStax, Consciousness, emotion and cognition. OpenStax CNX. Jul 11, 2016 Download for free at http://legacy.cnx.org/content/col11886/1.5
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