Perception is a process through which humans attend to, select, organize, interpret, and remember stimulating phenomena. Although all people are constantly involved in perception and aspects of the process are sometimes similar across individuals (especially among closely related members of families or cultural groups), each person perceives the world in unique ways that are open to a number of influences. It is difficult for us to know what and how each other perceive. Making our perceptions clear to others is an important part of effective communication and mutual understanding.

Through perception checking, we give others access to descriptions of what we think we’ve experienced (we describe the stimuli) and to our interpretations (we describe our feelings). Then we offer them an opportunity to correct us, to add their interpretations, or to validate our perceptions.