Extensive literature supports the use of what I call “hypothesis and test” in more complex pattern-recognition tasks. The cortex makes a guess about what it is seeing and then determines whether the features of what is actually in the field of view match its hypothesis.103 We are often more focused on the hypothesis than the actual test, which explains why people often see and hear what they expect to perceive rather than what is actually there. “Hypothesis and test” is also a useful strategy in our computer-based pattern-recognition systems.
