Imagine a person who has spent a significant amount of time watching K-dramas. Without learning the languages, they may start to pick up some words. With the help of subtitles, they began understanding that ‘jin-jja?’ (진짜?) In Korean, it means ‘really?’ Such words, conversations that often end up in familiar rhythms, can subtly imprint on an individual’s brain. This, in turn, makes it easier to recognise Korean being spoken in a crowd or a song, without actually looking at the person talking.
Why? Simply because it sounds and feels familiar. And not just Korean, we can perceive, internalise, and respond to repeated compositions or stimuli in the environment. The reason behind this phenomenon is a cognitive process called pattern recognition, our brain’s ability to recognise similarities by matching the information from the environment with knowledge stored in memory.
We see patterns in everything. From the body’s natural rhythms to the orbits of astronomical bodies, our brains are driven to seek out patterns, rhythms, and familiarity, even in an uncertain world. The brain uses these patterns to help us figure out how to react, when to react, and how to put sequences into play. But somehow, along the way, our brains start to see a pattern where none exists, leading us to conclude misconceptions, biases, or conspiracy theories.
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Concept of Pattern Recognition
According to APA, pattern recognition refers to ‘the ability to recognise and identify a complex whole composed of, or embedded in, many separate elements.’ Pattern recognition in psychology uses defining features in the identification and classification of different types of stimuli. The process of pattern recognition involves placing objects (or observations) in classes or categories that are accurate based on a set of measurements or observations. It applies to a variety of contexts. For example, it is used in brain modelling in the fields of biology and psychology. Statistical estimation decision making is key to pattern recognition research, as it helps form the basis for many of the classification and clustering algorithms.
Emergence of Pattern Recognition
From the intersection of perceptual, behavioural, and cognitive awareness, pattern recognition added an understanding of how people create meaning in an ever-complex, patterned world. Pattern recognition began to evolve in the early 20th century under the influence of two influential schools of thought, Gestalt psychology and behaviourism. Gestalt theorists like Max Wertheimer and Wolfgang Köhler shared a basic premise about how the human mind often collects, sorts, and arranges various sensory inputs into meaningful wholes.
Behaviourists like John B. Watson and B.F. Skinner focused explicitly on how repeated exposure was promoted through reinforcement that conditioned responses to those same stimuli in more encompassing environments. They begin to set up a basic understanding of how the present state of a learner is influenced by stimuli and consequences attached to those stimuli throughout various learning sequences of time.
With the development of psychology as a discipline, cognition arose as a school of thought in the mid-20th century, integrating and expanding the previous theories of Gestalt and Behaviourism. Scholars like Ulric Neisser and Donald Broadbent examined how we perceive patterns, how new information is processed, stored, and retrieved from memory, and how these perceptions shape our learning and decision-making. Cognitive psychology allows for a more useful summary by connecting sensory input, memory, and attention, with recognising regularly recurring patterns or stimuli from our environment.
Historical and Evolutionary Advantage of Recognising Patterns
Evolution favoured pattern recognition for a reason! In the days of our ancestors, survival depended on being able to identify danger quickly. Noticing the pattern of the movement of a predator quickly in the grass or recognising changes in the weather meant you could go on to score another day of survival without having your living breath devoured.
To be good at recognising patterns rewarded our ancestors, even if they made some mistakes; they survived to pass on their genes. It was safer to think mistakenly that a rustle in the bushes was a lion (false positive) than not to think it was a lion and to be lunch (false negative). “Better be safe than sorry” continues to influence how our brains even work today.
Mental Shortcuts: Schemas, Heuristics, and Other Terms
Several other terms pertain to similar ideas of pattern recognition as compared to cognitive processes, such as perception, cognition, and schema.
1. Perception
It is the experience of sensory stimuli and is associated with pattern recognition because perceiving an object or event is recognising meaningful stimuli/action. Thus, perception provides the sensory data that begins and is foundational to pattern recognition.
2. Cognition
It includes all mental processes relating to knowledge. Cognition involves attention, memory, problem-solving and reasoning, which are all directly concerned with pattern recognition. Perception is interpreting sensory data, while cognition includes perception and the higher-level mental processes concerned with recognising and interpreting sensory data and patterns.
3. Schemas & Heuristics
The brain loves shortcuts. We use them to reduce cognitive distractions, especially concerning overload. They come in the form of schemas (i.e., mental frameworks formed from prior experience) and heuristics (i.e., mental rules of thumb), which assist us in quickly identifying patterns and subsequently taking action.
For example, if you hear the first chords of a song you are very familiar with, your brain automatically fills in the rest. While shortcuts can be efficient for your brain, they may also lead to mistakes in judgment or misrecognizing a pattern.
Seeing Patterns Where There Are None
It’s bedtime, and you’ve turned your lights off. As soon as your eyes land on your door, you instantly flinch. But why? That’s just the shirt that you washed and hung up. Oh, did you think it was… someone else? This is pareidolia in action, triggered by pattern detection and enhanced by biological instincts for survival. This fear response is inherent to top-down processing, when previous knowledge, expectations, and emotion determine how we process sensory information.
Pareidolia is a phenomenon that occurs when people perceive images and have an association with a familiar image, which could be a face, an animal, or any object that looks similar. This can happen with clouds or rock formations. It is not a clinical diagnosis and is not a disorder. Pareidolia is a kind of pattern recognition whereby our brains try to make sense of ambiguous stimuli.
This happens because humans are wired to recognise faces and human facial features. We are so wired for facial recognition, we see faces in inanimate objects — sockets, shadows, rocks. This is indicative of how much we, as a species, have relied on social pattern recognition to recognise who is a friend or foe, safe or not safe.
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Pattern Recognition as the Disposition to False Positives
We desire the patterns we observe to cohere to create a sense of stability and comfort; we prefer things to occur for a reason, or ambiguity can produce uncertainty and anxiety. Apophenia is the term used to describe the tendency for people to see meaning where none exists. In other words, another term for apophenia is patternicity. For example, your name is being called by your mother, and she is not in the house. Or other random sounds and sights.
Pattern Recognition and Mental Health
Pattern recognition is valuable in life and also plays a complicated part in mental health. In anxiety, as an example, there are more instances when individuals “read into” patterns — they notice every small inflexion in tone or change in behaviour and take the perception as a sign of rejection or threat. Although this hyper-awareness is designed to be protective, it can be painstakingly tiring to maintain.
In the case of trauma survivors, they generally have learned to scan the environment for, better yet, warning signs that a horrible thing could occur later on. Traumatised people might notice patterns in behaviour or sounds much differently than other people who do not have the same trauma history, which can lead them to hypervigilance. Conversely, people who have autism spectrum disorders would probably notice patterns that the general population would ignore. They also would notice patterns with a heightened sensitivity to patterns in areas of mathematics, music, or logic.
Patterns-Based Cognitive Biases
Many cognitive biases are fundamentally part of how we perceive patterns:
1. Confirmation Bias: Once we recognise a pattern, we like to confirm that pattern, while ignoring contradictory information.
2. Gambler’s Fallacy: We think a pattern must “even out” We think a coin is “due” for heads after three tails.
3. Illusory Correlation: We wrongly conclude that there are two unrelated events just because they have occurred together a few times.
These biases can affect everything from the way we vote to how we view a peer. So, how do we navigate a world in which our brains are constantly trying to find patterns, but often get it wrong? The answer lies with metacognition: thinking about how we think. Once we’re conscious of our inherent desire to find and create patterns, we need to stop and ask: Are the patterns even real, or are they imagined? Do I have any evidence? Am I discarding evidence that disproves this pattern? This level of awareness is important in psychological practice. Therapists regularly help clients to reframe negative patterns of thinking by challenging whether these patterns are based upon fact or a misinterpretation.
Final thoughts
Pattern recognition is one of the most fundamental means by which our brains interpret reality. It allows us to survive, make sense of things, connect, and create. Like any tool, it can misfire. Knowing where it comes from psychologically both increases self-awareness. It allows us to be more aware of the narratives our brains tell us.
FAQs
1. What is pattern recognition in psychology?
Pattern recognition refers to the cognitive process by which the brain identifies and classifies stimuli, be it sounds, visuals, behaviours, or concepts, by matching them with existing knowledge stored in memory. This helps us understand and respond quickly to the world around us. It’s how we know a friend’s voice over a call or recognise the melody of a familiar song.
2. Why does our brain sometimes see patterns that aren’t there?
Our brain is wired to detect patterns because it helps us make quick judgments and survive in unpredictable environments. However, this can lead to false positives, like hearing your name in random noise or seeing a face in a shadow. This tendency is called apophenia or pareidolia, and while it can be harmless, it may also influence irrational beliefs or misinterpretations.
3. How is pattern recognition related to anxiety or trauma?
People with anxiety or trauma histories often become hyper-attuned to certain patterns, especially in behaviour or tone. This hypervigilance is the brain’s way of trying to stay safe, but it can lead to misreading neutral cues as threatening. Recognising this tendency is the first step in reframing and managing these responses in therapy or everyday life.
4. Can pattern recognition go wrong in decision-making?
Yes. Cognitive biases like confirmation bias and the gambler’s fallacy stem from flawed pattern recognition. These biases cause us to misinterpret data, ignore contradictory evidence, or assume that random events follow a predictable sequence. Understanding these errors can improve our thinking and reduce irrational decisions.
5. How can I become more aware of when I’m misrecognizing a pattern?
1. Am I seeing a real pattern or imagining one?
2. Do I have evidence, or am I making assumptions?
3. Am I only paying attention to what supports my belief?
References +
APA Dictionary of Psychology. (n.d.). https://dictionary.apa.org/pattern-recognition
Apophenia. (2023, November 9). Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/apophenia
Beard, C. (2011). Cognitive bias modification for anxiety: current evidence and future directions. Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics, 11(2), 299–311. https://doi.org/10.1586/ern.10.194
Bella, S. D., Peretz, I., & Aronoff, N. (2003). Time course of melody recognition: A gating paradigm study. Perception & Psychophysics, 65(7), 1019–1028. https://doi.org/10.3758/bf03194831
Julie. (2023, December 4). Pattern Recognition: Psychology Definition, History & Examples. Dr.Philip G. Zimbardo. https://www.zimbardo.com/pattern-recognition-psychology-definition-history-examples/#:~:text=Pattern%20recognition%2C%20in%20psychology%2C%20is,History
List of Cognitive Biases and Heuristics – The Decision Lab. (n.d.). The Decision Lab. https://thedecisionlab.com/biases
Mattson, M. P. (2014). Superior pattern processing is the essence of the evolved human brain. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2014.00265
Pareidolia. (2023, November 10). Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/pareidolia
Wang, C., Yu, L., Mo, Y., Wood, L. C., & Goon, C. (2022). Pareidolia in a built environment is a complex phenomenological, ambiguous stimulus. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(9), 5163. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19095163
Wisner, W. (2024, June 11). What does it mean if you have apophenia? Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/apophenia-does-everything-happen-for-a-reason-8656889
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