As Hicks suggests, the theories we hold are one of the predomi- nant bases for the assumptions we harbor. They become the mental model or lens through which we look at the world. They shape our perception. Perception is the process by which we detect and inter- pret environmental stimuli. What makes human perception so per- tinent is that, as Hicks notes, we do not simply take in the stimuli in our environment. We go beyond what is present and tend to pay selective attention to those aspects of the environment that are consistent with and support our held theories-and we tend to uncon- sciously ignore, overlook, or downplay elements that are inconsis- tent with them. Our brains, in effect, use our mental concepts to modulate and determine what we see.