Reality and our perception of it are not the same. While reality flows continuously, when we sit down to reflect on our day it seems to be organized into neat chapters.
According to event segmentation theory, this subconscious structuring of reality is a side effect of how our brains process perceptions. We constantly predict what will happen next, which is easy while doing a familiar task like making tea. But when we move on to a new task, like writing, what we know about making tea may not be useful in predicting our experiences writing. This failure to predict causes a boundary to form between the two events, creating a perception of neat chapters.
This is a video from the 2024 Brain Awareness Video Contest.
Created by Harry Johnson.
