motivation ( factor affecting perceptual set)

Question 1

Motivation

Answer 1

Forces that drive our behavior

Question 2

How does motivation affect perceptual set?

Answer 2

Your motivation affects what you pay attention to and what you ignore. Waiting for something increases its attractiveness

Question 3

Aim: Gilchrist and Nesberg

Answer 3

To investigate how motivation affects perceptual set

Question 4

Method: Gilchrist and Nesberg

Answer 4

There were 26 uni students
half went without food and the other half ate normally for 24 hours
The ppts were shown pictures on a screen for 15 seconds and then the screen was turned off
The pictures were shown again but with different brightness and the ppts had to adjust the brightness to what they looked like before.
They were tested 6 hours after eating and then 20 hours after eating

Question 5

Results: Gilchrist and Nesberg

Answer 5

The group that hadn’t eaten made the pictures a lot brighter than they were originally while the group that had eaten kept the brightness the same.

Question 6

conclusion: Gilchrist and Nesberg

Answer 6

Hunger can affect how we perceive images of food - suggesting motivation affects the perceptual set.

Question 7

Evaluation: similar studies showed the same results

Answer 7

Sanford deprived ppts of food and when they were shown ambiguous figures the ppts that had gone without food were more likely to perceive the pictures as food. Eg a brown blob was said to be a hamburger. This increases the validity of Gilchrist and Nesberg’s experiment.

Question 8

Evaluation: ethical issues

Answer 8

Depriving people of food isn’t very ethical. Although the period of time isn’t huge it could cause discomfort to ppts. And even if they signed a consent form they may not have known what they had to do, as it would have affected the experiment. It might not be fair to deprive people of food for the sake of psychological research.