Perception in intelligence analysis

By definition, Perception is the interpretations of sensory information in order to represent and understand the presented information, or the environment. It is the process of inference in which people construct their own version of reality on the basis of information provided through the five senses.

Basically, perception is built upon information we already consumed through our senses. It is strongly influenced by education, media, social values, culture ..etc. We tend to perceive what we expect to perceive. Intelligence analysts conclude results to what they expect based on their perception, or they don’t pay attention to details which are not matching the perception they are used to.

Fresh analyst with little perception about the case sometimes help better than experience and old analyst due to the fact that, mind of old analyst resists change. Amount of data and time spent have a proportional relationship to perception. The more data you collect the more perception your brain develops.

Reference:

https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/psychology-of-intelligence-analysis/art5.html