The Amazing Catch

I will use the three stages of the perception process to identify the process I followed in determining whether or not the situation shown in the video is possible. The video shows a ball girl scaling the back wall of a baseball field and catching a home run. I believe that the ball girl catch was real; I will explain how I used the three stages of perception to come to my conclusion. I will also describe the characteristics of each step, and information I focused on.
Before I begin with my conclusion I feel it would be best to explain the perception process, and how the stages work together. I will later define the stages and characteristics of each, and explain how they pertain to the ball girl catching the ball. The first stage of the Perception process is selection. Selection is when something sticks out from normal, and is brought to your attention and you decide it warrants further investigation. Once something is brought to your attention, the second step of the Perception process is organization. Organization is how you categorize and quantify the information that is brought to your attention. After you have organized the information your third step in the Perception process is interpretation. Interpretation is your final conclusion on the information or situation you have observed.
The first step in the stages of the perception process is selection. Selection is defined as the process of attending to a stimulus (Kory 109); this means something is brought to your attention as something you would possibly want to investigate further. In this video, selection would be the ball girl jumping up the wall and catching a home run. The characteristics of selection that are used are unusual or unexpected in intensity. Unusual or unexpected makes a stimulus stand out, in this video it applies to her jumping up the wall. I have watched many baseball games, but I cannot remember anyone ever jumping a wall at a baseball game like that and catching a ball. Since I have never been exposed to that before it would be unusual, that is why it caught my attention. Intensity affects how much you take notice of an event. I thought the ball girl jumping up the wall was a fairly intense event, which caught my attention immediately.
The second step in the stages of the perception process is organization. Organization is defined as the process of categorizing information that has been selected for attention (Kory 109). Once the ball girl jumping up the wall was brought to my attention, I began to organize the information. The characteristics of organization I used in this situation are physical constructs and role constructs. Physical construct is defined as emphasis on people’s appearance causing us to notice objective characteristics such as: height, age ethnicity, and body shape, as well as subjective characteristics such as physical attributes (Kory 109). The physical characteristics I noticed were that the ball girl appeared old enough to be a ball girl. If she was too old or too young that would have made it unlikely she was really a ball girl and the video could be fake. Another physical characteristic I noticed was that she appeared to be an athlete. She had the physical characteristics of an athlete such as being lean and slightly muscular. She also appeared to be tall enough to possiblly jump that high. She carried herself in a confident manor, which I felt was another physical characteristic of an athlete, and someone who was capable of jumping up the wall and catching a ball. Role constructs are defined that they emphasize people’s social or professional position, so we need notice that person (Kory 109). I noticed she was wearing a baseball ball uniform which would make me believe that she was an official ball girl, and had experience catching baseballs. It also indicates she belongs there and is not out of place. It also appeared in the video that players and fans interacted with her in a manner that indicates she is a recognized member of the team. This would allow her access to the field where she would be in a position to catch the baseball. These physical characteristics help reinforce my observation in the selection process that the video is real. The selection process helped me complete the organization process by bringing these characteristics to my attention, and allowing me to organize them.
The third step in the perception process is interpretation. Interpretation is defined as the process of assigning meaning to information that has been selected for attention and organization (Kory 109). Once I had selected and organized the ball girl jumping up the wall to catch a ball, I then interpreted this information. The characteristics of interpretation I used were experience. Experience is any and all past interaction and events in your life you use to assign meaning to behavior. My experience is that a ball girl jumping up a wall and catching a ball does not happen often, but due to the information gathered in the selection and organization process it was possible in this instance. In my experience athletes can be capable of extraordinary feats, and it is possible this was one such feat. These interpretations are what helps me think the video is real and not fabricated. The selection stage assisted me in my interpretation by bringing to my attention information I needed to form a conclusion. This would be me observing the ball girl jumping to catch the baseball. The organization stage assisted me by observing her physical characteristics. That she was possibly physically capable of performing the jump to catch the ball is a determining factor in my belief that the video is real and not fake. It also assisted me in my belief that the catch was real because it appeared to me she had proper clothing and mannerisms of someone of her position on the team, and that she was a member of the team, not a stranger who would not have normal access to the field.
After using the perception process I was able to gather and interpret the information in the video and believe it to be real. It was brought to my attention in the selection process that a ball girl jumped up a wall and caught a baseball. The organization process allowed me to process the information that she was most likely physically capable of jumping up the wall and that she would have had the opportunity to do so. My interpretation of this information is that the video is real because I feel the ball girl was physically capable of making the catch by her appearance. I also believe the catch was real because of the uniform she was wearing and position that would have afforded her to make the catch. It is my interpretation that the video is real because the ball girl had the physical capability to catch the ball and the opportunity to do so. I saw no evidence to the contrary.

Reference List.
Floyd, Kory (2009) Interpersonal Communication. The Process of Perception pp108-112