Central Role of Expectation in Cognition: "I think we’re undergoing somewhat of a slow revolution in the cognitive sciences. The field is slowly coming to focus on the central role of prior expectation in cognition.
Evidence that prior expectation has a large effect on the interpretation of sensory input is by no means new, but it seems to me that people are focusing on prior expectation more and more when they theorize about the mind."
Comment: I guess this is similar to what we mean when we say a person "only sees what they want to see". The statement at the end of the post is particularly informative on how we devise our own learning: "sensory processing (as well as other aspects of cognition) is best understood as centered around prediction and prior expectation, not incoming sensory data." We aren't objective, rational people. Our cognition is an intricate interplay of emotions, desire, logic, motivation, and meaning. When we look at learning - as an advanced cognitive process - it's little wonder it is such a complex (and misunderstood) process.