GCSE Psychology: Perception studies

KEY WORDS

Schema

- a framework of knoweledge about an object, event or group of people

- can affect our perception

- helps usto organise and recall information

Perceptual Set

- the tendency to notice some things more than others

- can be caused by experience, context or expectations

Method

• Took participant to a room they said was an "office" and told them to wait
• Left for 5 mins. then took them to another room and got them to recall what was in the office

Findings

• They recalled traditional office objects, including books - there weren't any
• Participants didn't remember the wine, skull or picnic hamper

Conclusion

• Participants using "office" schema
• Shows a certain context can lead to certain expectations/schemas
  

AIM-to find out whether context would alter perception

Method

• Showed a context scene, eg. a kitchen, for 2 secs
  
• Got people to identify objects that were appropriate(eg. loaf of bread); inappropriate, similar(eg.mailbox); inappropriate, different(drum)

Findings (% of correct identifications)

• 83%-appropriate, 40%-similar, 49%-different
• 64% identifications with no context

Conclusion

• our expectations affect our perception
  

Strengths:

• controlled the time each image was shown
• participants all knew what to do
• 2 sets of data not used because of lack of glasses
  

AIM-to find out why information changes after a series of reproductions

Method

• Serial - 1st participant read "War of The Ghosts" and after 10-15mins told a 2nd person, this continued over 10 people and many groups were tested
• Repeated - participant read story and were asked to recall it at random intervals, eg. 15mins, 20hrs, 8dys, 6mths, 10yrs)

Findings

• outline of events stick, names stereotyped, made less complex

Conclusion

• unfamiliar stories are changed when recalled, possibly due to schemas
  

Strengths

• Tasks repeated many times to show patterns in changes clearly
• Different stories were used to show the changes weren't due to that story

Weaknesses

• Only used unfamiliar stories - might not get the same results with familiar stories
• Participants were not tested at equal time differences - cannot be compared
  

AIM-to see if words remind us of a schema and if it affects our memory

Method

• Participants split into 3 groups: list 1, list 2 and control
• Shown 12 pictures with word label from list (control had none) and asked to draw what they saw

Findings (% of pictures representing word label, control from either list)

• 73%-list 1, 74%-list 2, 45%-control

Conclusion

• shows the words spoken affected the participants memories
• memory is reconstructed, the word alters the way the picture was remembered
  

Strengths

• used a control group to check findings
• the 2 different list showed the results clearly
• a lot of participants and pictures to get clear results
• supported by recent evidence

Weaknesses

• study wasn't life-like
• labels affected recognition not recall