Predictive Processing and the Art of Communicating

A fascinating new area of brain research suggests something that good communicators have intuitively known all along: the human brain interprets information based on predictions it has already made. In other words, your brain largely sees or hears or feels what it has expected to see, hear, or feel.

Apparently what happens is that when presented with a novel input, the brain first makes its best guess as to what it is, but then begins an analysis to see if this makes sense. For a while it may dither back and forth, usually settling on an outcome which takes into account one’s memories, one’s initial perception, and the process of fitting these together. The image below is a duck. Or perhaps it’s a rabbit. Oh, goodness!

Of course, this is highly subjective. As in The Blind Men and the Elephant, we may see, hear, or smell the exact same thing and arrive at diametrically opposite conclusions about what it is. That’s because we don’t really see or hear or smell or feel what is actually there, but what our brain interprets as being there. And that, in turn, is based upon the previous information you have already stored away.

This has huge implications for communicators. We need to be very conscious that people don’t hear what we are saying, they hear what they think we are saying. Ambiguities will be interpreted the way the listener’s brain decides, not the way you might want. Important details which you omit will be filled in by the listener according to their own unique logic and experience.

Pragmatically, that tells us that as communicators we need to be conscious about our output. Language which is precise, concise, and efficient is at less risk of misinterpretation.

It’s also important to understand the power of parables – setting the scene in the listener’s mind with “it’s like” language largely takes control of the image or memory the listener will use to interpret what you are trying to explain.

The good communicator also manages the feedback loop, constantly reading the listener for signals as to what is being taken up and how it’s being interpreted. This is why the best platform speakers are those who engage the audience, watching every eye and every face as if they were in a one-on-one. Communication is not just about output– it’s also about gauging the intake. The effective communicator controls both.