On the other hand, censors accept or reject cultural experiences in terms of pain or pleasure as noted below. Sensory Filters . Our limbic brain has certain neural filtering devices that are genetically programmed to delete redundant or painful sensory perceptions. Our perceived reality therefore passes through a series of filters, leaving only enough information to satisfy our needs and insure our survival. Our filters are innately designed to sort and classify sensory percepts in terms of existing memories.
Filters condense huge volumes of sensory data and related memories into manageable proportions.
These filters keep us from being confused and overwhelmed by lots of irrelevant, chaotic data. The high-speed processing of huge amounts of verbal data implies that they are much reduced in volume by filters before they enter our consciousness. Incoming verbal data are filtered with respect to familiar, cultural concepts stored in semantic memory. But if we hear someone sneeze, our semantic memory knows that this sound is not a word. Painful or irrelevant data are removed before they can enter self-consciousness.