An old adage, often attributed to French writer Anaïs Nin, suggests we don’t see things as they are we see things as we are. Using deceptively simple words, the saying suggests that seeing is not just a process where wavelengths are converted to electric impulses that are then processed by the brain in mysterious ways to create what we then believe to see but rather that seeing, to some significant extent, is also a socially shaped and conditioned process, which is why it is relevant to information behavior research. Gorichanaz (2018) explored this dimension of seeing when clarifying the differences between point of view and perspective and illustrating how being mindful of the differences can benefit the field of information behavior Sohjoo (2024) on the other hand studied multispecies families (a term used to indicate families that care for and live with a variety of pets) and explored often non-verbal interactions within these multispecies families from an ‘information’ point of view. Lueg (2024) emphasizes that across the animal kingdom, human animals perceive their world in a very specific way which is also the only way of seeing that humans are familiar with. However, this human way of seeing constitutes just one particular way of seeing the world. The research goes on to explore what this means for information science as a discipline because it is traditionally human centered and now could face complex multi species ecosystem challenges.

How people encounter and experience information heavily depends on how they absorb information with their senses that include, but are not limited to: sight, hearing, and touch. Research on information encountering found that people often bump into information while searching for something else; in a way, falling down the rabbit hole. “Information encountering occurs when one is looking for information relating to one topic and finds information relating to another one. However, it also occurs upon bumping into information while carrying on a routine activity” (Erdelez 1999, p25).

Recognizing information as available in the world (Bergman and Beehner 2023) isn’t as straightforward an activity since the perceptual capabilities of the human body enable but also constrain what one perceives (Lueg 2014). The contraints include physical aspects as they relate to the human body such as shortsightedness, body orientation, or blocked view, but also cognitive phenomena including change blindness and inattentional blindness. The latter phenomenon helps explain why people may be looking right at the information they’ve been spending time searching for. An example: one of the authors of this article was frantically searching for a specific book (Norman Doidge’s The Brain that changes itself (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/291041/the-brain-that-changes-itself-by-norman-doidge-md/) in a well-sorted bookshop. Only with the help of a shop attendant, the author found that the book was right on the shelf exactly where it (alphabetically and categorically) belonged! Experiences like this can be exhilarating when people realize how little (of nearly limitless information) actually makes its way to their conscious processing!

Information Science researchers have compiled a considerable body of work observing and documenting the different ways people engage with information and the researchers derived a variety of models to make sense of the observations (see Fisher et al 2005 for a broad overview of information behavior models). Models range from ones that describe people’s behavior to models attempting to map whether information is available to a person, or not (Lueg 2014, p566). Availability dimensions include but are not limited to physical availability and the ability to sense the information. A related area of information behavior that has arguably received little attention is information behavior in occupations that specifically train professionals to look at things in a certain way and how that relates to individual information behaviors and information behavior research in general.

In her 2013 book On Looking: Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes, Alexandra Horowitz took leisurely walks around her neighborhood accompanied by people from very different professional backgrounds including a geologist and a physician. Horowitz described that these professionals paid attention to vastly different aspects of the cityscape. These professionals did so, arguably, because what they saw was influenced by what they knew. For instance, the geologist commented on the type of rock they were walking on while the physician pointed out how watching people’s gait would suggest likely underlying conditions. The academic term for this way of how people apply their personal and professional experience to observe their surroundings is known as educated perception (see e.g. Veinot 2007 for its use in LIS research). Horowitz came up with the idea for the book when walking around the neighborhood with her young child and their dog. Horowitz noticed how both her child and the dog would notice and/or pay extra attention to weird and different things than what she would notice. It often remained entirely unclear as why these things were so interesting to her child or dog or for that matter, what they were even paying attention to, but she concluded it was wholly different than what she had been noticing.

Educated perception can also help save lives in many different settings. In vault inspections (Veinot 2007), the focus is primarily on the safety of the vault inspectors and their co-workers while attending work sites. An area where educated perception primarily helps save lives of others is acute mental health nursing. Two relatively new concepts in that area are trauma-informed practice (TIP) and trauma-informed care (TIC). Trauma-informed care (TIC) is a strengths-based framework that is responsive to the impact of trauma. The framework emphasizes physical, psychological, and emotional safety for both trauma survivors and professionals. It creates opportunities for survivors to rebuild a sense of control and empowerment (Fleishman et al 2019). TIC is designed to recognize and support the needs of those who have experienced trauma and to deliver care in a manner that is sensitive to the effects of trauma to avoid re-traumatization (Stokes et al 2017).

Nursing professional practice continuously evolves by attending further trainings when new knowledge becomes available. Trauma-informed approaches to care shift the focus from asking “What’s wrong with you?” to “What happened to you?” (Menschner & Maul 2016). One of the authors of this paper, a psychiatric registered nurse, described how learning about TIP/TIC had a profound impact on her professional practice when engaging with mental health patients: “TIP/TIC guide my attitude and my actions in everyday nursing care for patients with mental health illnesses or disorders.” Examples illustrating the TIP/TIC guidance include ‘seeing’ current patient behaviors as linked to past traumatic situations. She would also always introduce herself and her role in every patient interaction to allow patients to feel empowered, so that they can become actively engaged in their own care. She would use open and non-threatening body positioning, including reducing the likelihood of creating a perceived power differential through positioning. She would also ensure that all have access to an exit so neither of them might feel trapped in a room. All of this is to help prevent the threat detection areas of the brain from taking over which is essential for patients to become actively engaged in their own care.

Per the old adage mentioned earlier, we don’t see things as they are we see things as we are. In the case of the psychiatric nurse, the person changed in order to see things differently.

It would be fascinating to see before/after information behavior studies or studies comparing educated vs untrained perception. It is unfortunate that such studies are extremely difficult to arrange.

References
Bergman, T.J and Beehner, J.C. (2023). Information Ecology: an integrative framework for studying animal behavior. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, November, Vol. 38, No. 11. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37820577/
Chaplan, M.A. and Hertenstein, E.J. (2002). The Information Needs of Local Union Officials. Library Trends, Vol. 51, No. 1, Summer 2002, pp. 50-69 https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/items/8405
Erdelez, S (1999). Information Encountering: It’s More Than Just Bumping into Information. Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Volume25, Issue3 February/March 1999 Pages 26-29. https://doi.org/10.1002/bult.118
Fisher, K. E., Erdelez, S., & McKechnie, L. (2005). Theories of information behavior. Information Today.https://store.infotoday.com/product/theories-of-information-behavior/
Fleishman, J., Kamsky, H., Sundborg, S. (2019). Trauma-Informed Nursing Practice. OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing Vol. 24, No. 2, Manuscript 3. https://doi.org/10.3912/OJIN.Vol24No02Man03
Gorichanaz, T. (2018). Perspective in information behaviour research In Proceedings of ISIC, the Information Behaviour Conference, Krakow, Poland, 9-11 October: Part 1. Information Research, 23(4), paper isic1803. Retrieved from http://InformationR.net/ir/23-4/isic2018/isic1803.html
Horowitz, A. (2013). On looking: Eleven walks with expert eyes. Scribner’s. https://alexandrahorowitz.net/On-Looking
Lueg, C. (2014). Characteristics of human perception and their relevance when studying information behavior. Journal of Documentation, Vol. 70 Issue 4, pp. 562–574. Emerald. https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-05-2012-0064
Lueg, C. (2024). Why a Future-Oriented Information Science Discipline Should Embrace
an “Animal Turn”. Conference of the Canadian Association for Information Science (CAIS 2024). https://cais2024.ca/talk/21.lueg/
Menschner, C. & Maul, A. (2016). Key ingredients for successful trauma-informed care implementation. Center for Health Care Strategies, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. https://www.traumainformedcare.chcs.org/resource/key-ingredients-for-successful-trauma-informed-care-implementation/
Sohjoo, N. (2024) The emotional and informational lives of more-than-humans. Information Matters, Vol. 4, Issue 7. https://informationmatters.org/2024/07/the-emotional-and-informational-lives-of-more-than-humans/
Stokes Y, Jacob JD, Gifford W, Squires J & Vandyk A (2017). Exploring Nurses’ Knowledge and Experiences Related to Trauma-Informed Care. Global Qualitative Nursing Research. Vol.4, no.1, p.1-10. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5648082/
Veinot, T. C. (2007). “The eyes of the power company”: Workplace information practices of a vault inspector. Library Quarterly, 77(2), 157–180. https://doi.org/10.1086/517842

Anaïs Nin quote at: “We Don’t See Things As They Are, We See Them As We Are”
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/03/09/as-we-are/