Some effects of mental set and active participation in the conditioning of the autokinetic phenomenon.

Abstract

SubjectsSixteen college men served as Ss. Of these, only one bad received instruction in psychology (introductory course), and all remained unaware of the purpose and method of the experiment. ApparatusThe apparatus consisted of a 4-watt bulb connected to a throw switch. The bulb was placed in a small tin can, one side of which was pierced with a pin-point hole. The shelf on which the light was placed was marked off in J-inch units, so that before the experiment began, the 5 would think that the light actually moved, and during the experiment would be more able to estimate the magnitude of the movements. The S sat 10 feet away from the light in a blackedout room. The light appeared for 7$ sec. during each trial, and the trials came at about 30-sec. intervals.

Reinforcement of perceptual inference: reward and punishment alter conscious visual perception during binocular rivalry

“…Our results are in general agreement with studies that reported effects of current needs and preferences or stimulus value on perceptual inference ( Proshansky and Murphy, 1942 ; Schafer and Murphy, 1943 ; Haggard and Rose, 1944 ; Bruner and Goodman, 1947 ; Balcetis and Dunning, 2006 , 2010 ; Fleming et al, 2010 ; Summerfield and Koechlin, 2010 ; Anderson et al, 2011c ; Balcetis et al, 2012 ; Radel and Clement-Guillotin, 2012 ; Schmack et al, 2013 ). However, our findings go substantially beyond this previous work in several ways.…”

“…Previous studies have demonstrated a modulation of perceptual inference by value ( Proshansky and Murphy, 1942 ; Schafer and Murphy, 1943 ; Haggard and Rose, 1944 ; Alpers et al, 2005 ; Balcetis and Dunning, 2006 ; Fleming et al, 2010 ; Summerfield and Koechlin, 2010 ; Anderson et al, 2011c ; Balcetis et al, 2012 ; see also Riccio et al, 2013 , for review). For example, ambiguous face-house images (overlaid pictures that could be perceived as either a house or a face) were more often categorized as houses when pay-off matrices suggested this perceptual decision to be advantageous ( Fleming et al, 2010 ).…”

Psychology of Learning

“…The importance of specificity in set was revealed in an ingenious experiment (30) in which subjects who were told that a light would move during most of the trials perceived movement more frequently than did those instructed that movement would occur in only some of the trials. A set developed by the subjects, in finding that the solution for several successive problems lay in a procedure common to all, was viewed as created by special factors in the situation as a result of intelligent assumptions (55).…”

Chapter IV: Psychology of Learning

“…The importance of specificity in set was revealed in an ingenious experiment (30) in which subjects who were told that a light would move during most of the trials perceived move ment more frequently than did those instructed that movement would occur in only some of the trials. A set developed by the subjects, in find ing that the solution for several successive problems lay in a procedure common to all, was viewed as created by special factors in the situation as a result of intelligent assumptions (55).…”