The preceding chapter outlined the sequence of events, physical, physiological, and psychological, by which perception of a phenomenon is combined with previous conceptions. In this chapter we will review some evidence on how this proceeds in fact, and on how the conceptions, sometimes after significant interpretation, produce a report.

The question underlying this discussion is this: Are misinterpretation and misreporting sufficiently common as to make credible the assertion that the entire UFO phenomenon, or at least the residual of unidentified cases, is the result of these processes (plus deliberate hoaxes)? The data show that this assertion is indeed credible, although, of course, we cannot prove that this accounts for the unidentified objects.