A new look at the new look: Perceptual defense and vigilance.

Abstract

The "New Look" in perception, particularly the perceptual defense-vigilance effect, is reformulated in information-processing terms following an evaluation of the major criticisms that have been leveled against it. These criticisms, including the logical paradox, homunculus, frequency, expectancy-set, and various response bias positions, are shown to be conceptually flawed or empirically incomplete. The reformulation of the phenomenon conceives of the perceptual defense-vigilance effect as a special instance of selectivity in cognitive processing. It is specifically argued that selectivity-and therefore perceptual defense and perceptual vigilance-is a multiprocess complex of phenomena under central regulative control. Selectivity-and consequently defensive selectivity-is brought into play through varied mechanisms at multiple loci of the information-processing sequence. Thus, selectivity is pervasive throughout the cognitive continuum, from input to output, and no single site is likely to provide exhaustive explanation of any substantial selective phenomenon."The verdict is not suddenly arrived at, & McGinnies, 1948) which suggested that the proceedings only gradually merge into the perception of external stimuli is not free the verdict [Franz Kafka]."°f the shackles of internal events: attitudes, values, expectancies, needs, and psycho-The proceedings, at least formally, started dynamic defenses all impinge upon percepsome quarter century ago with a series of t ion. This view became loosely known as publications (Bruner & Postman, 1947a, the "New Look." 1947bMcGinnies, 1949; As with most things new, this was not an .altogether novel departure. Past work, thei The author is very much indebted to a number °re , tical aS Wel1 aS empirical, had anticipated of individuals for their incisive reading of an and even preceded the movement. Howearlier draft of this paper. Special thanks are due ever, the New Look, as a concerted experito Donald Broadbent, Ralph Haber, Richard Lore, mental effort, launched a frontal assault upon Ulric Neisser John Santa, and Peter Suedfeld for ^ interface bet ween psychodynamiCS and their truly helpful suggestions, criticisms, and . , . ... .. ,. . encouragement. It goes without saying that their psychophysics, delineating the issue as a help need not imply agreement with any or all coherent subject area in psychology, substantive points developed in this paper.After two and one-half decades and prob-«Requests for reprints should be sent to aM more than j QQQ research publications,

New Look 3: Unconscious cognition reclaimed.

“…Others prefer, however, to describe such actions without reference to unconscious cognition, as being A familiar theme in academic psychology has been that psychoanalytic conceptions of unconscious cognition lack empirical confirmation.' This skeptical view-which partly explains the omission of the topic of unconscious cognition from many textbooks, and even the omission of the word unconscious from the vocabularies of many psychologists-was prevalent in the 1950s, when concerted empirical research (the New Look, starting with Bruner & Postman, 1947) ultimately subsided with much achieved, but without any convincing evidence for psychoanalytic-inspired conceptions of unconscious influences on per~eption.~ Erdelyi (1974) initiated a second New Look, making a strong case for theoretical connections between cognitive psychology and psychoanalytic conceptions of unconscious cognition. Although New Look 2's rapprochement of psychoanalytic and cognitive theory remains an active project, nevertheless New Look 2 (like New Look 1) has not produced widely accepted evidence for psychoanalytic interpretations of unconscious influences on perception or judgment.…”

A social Bayesian brain: How social knowledge can shape visual perception

“…what a participant says). For example, the Bruner and Goodman result could be completely attributed to post-perceptual changes in how a poor child responds to coins, but not how the child perceives the coins, a so-called response bias (Erdelyi, 1974). In the last two decades researchers have shown a renewed appreciation for the ideas of the New Look scientists, which has been accompanied by an increasing body of methodologically rigorous empirical research.…”

Electricity Supplier Switching: A Conceptual Model Based on Migration Theory

“…The lack of awareness, as emphasized by Kruglanski and Klar (1985), is simply the state of unconsciousness (Erdelyi, 1974). "Not every single bit of confident knowledge needs to be linked in a person's awareness with other knowledge" (Kruglanski & Klar, 1985), however "… the behavior is expected to be regulated at some level of awareness such that the relevance of new information can be noticed and taken into consideration" (Bamberg et al, 2003).…”