Experimental evidence for the theory of a directive state: findings on six hypotheses

The materials can best be presented under the six following propositions of special hypothesis. They will deal respectively with-

1. The effect of bodily needs on what is perceived
2. The effect of reward and punishment on perceptual content, magnitude and speed
3. The influence of values on speed of object-recognition
4. Needs and values as affecting the dimensionality of the percept
5. personality as a perceptual determinant and
6. The effect on perception of the emotionally disturbing nature of the stimulus-object

The effect of bodily needs on what is perceived

Levine, Chine and Murphy 1942, presented to subjects who had been deprived of food for varying lengths of time a number of ambiguous drawings of objects, including pictures of food. The drawing some of which were colored and some in black and white, were asked to try verbalize association for every picture. The results showed that for achromatic drawing the number of times some article of food was mentioned in connection with a picture increased after three hours of food deprivation and increased still further after six hours. There was however a decrease at nine hours of deprivation. Tour chromatic pictures on a series of occasions shortly after eating exhibited no such trend toward increase of food response. It seems therefore the shorter hypothesis was given some support. At least for the shorter periods during which a bodily need was felt that need did seem to determine. What was perceived under marginal conditions of perceiving.

The effect of reward and punishment on perceptual content, magnitude and speed

They also tend to determine its apparent magnitude and its speed of recognition.

In a research by Rigby and Rigby 1952, their method was to reinforce certain capital letters turned by giving the subjects candy when this letters turned up in a block tossing game. Other letters were not reinforced and for some letters candy was taken away. It was found that the more a positive reinforcement for letter occurred the shorter was the tachistoscopic exposure time required for it perception. Negative reinforcement effects however did not differ from the effect of mere frequency of occurrence of the letter.

The influence of values on speed of object-recognition

The values characteristics of the individual tend to determine the speed with which words related to those values are recognized. Postman, Bruner and McGinies 1948, administered the Allport-Vernon Study of values to 25 college students and secured their scores on the 6 value- categories-

1. theoretical
2. economic
3. aesthetic
4. social
5. political
6. religious

The subjects were also shown 36 words techistospically, 6 words being meaningfully related to each of the value categories.  These stimuli were presented with an increasing duration of exposure, beginning with .01 second and increase until the word was correctly perceived. 5 trails were given at each tachistoscopic speed. It was found that the higher the value to the individual of the value category to which the word was related shorter was the exposure period at which the word could be recognized.      

Needs and values as affecting the dimensionality of the percept

The value of objects to the individual tends to determine their perceived magnitudes. The perceived dimensional properties of an object are altered by the relevance of that object to some need of the individual. This dimensional proposition was tested by Bruner and Goodman 1947. 10 years old children estimated the size of coins by altering a circular stop of light so that its area seemed to them to be equal to the size of the coin. In order to do this the subject turned a knob on a box this controlled, by means of an iris diaphragm, the size of a spot of light thrown from behind upon a ground glass screen. Coins in the denomination of 1, 5, 10, 25 and 50 cents were used, also gray cardboard discs of the same sizes. It was found that the estimated size of every coin was larger than its true size and that the overestimation increased with the value of the coin from one to 25 cent but dropped with half dollar. These effects were not found with a control group who estimated the size of the cardboard disc.

In an experiment where the subject was not given a coin to match but was asked to imagine one and to match its size from memory, overestimations similar to those for the condition of “coin present” were given be the poor children, but to a lesser degree. Such overestimations were given by the rich children only for the half dollar.  

This experiment has been criticized on the ground that where the groups are so small. Ashley, Harper and Runyon 1951, repeat this experiment and they solved the “poor”, rich children problem.

Lambert, Solomon and Watson 1949, also thought that differences in the life histories of subject that might have a bearing upon the valuation of objects should be better known and controlled. The mere fact that a child comes from a poor does not tell definitely what his attitudes, and all subjects were nursery school children. The object used was a pocker chip. It was given a value by the fact that the chips, having been “earned” by the children as payment for cooperating in some simple task, could later be exchanged in a slot machine for candy. Estimates were also made by a control group who were rewarded by candy directly after the work sessions without the mediation of the poker chip. Using the Bruner-Goodman type of equipment, size estimates of the chip were made be the children in a pretest, that is, before it was used as a token that could be exchanged for the reward. Overestimation of size of the chip was general; but after 10 days of reinforcement of the chip be the reward there was significant rise in the overestimation as compared with estimates made the pretest. Then there was a significant drop in the overestimation after extinction and again a significant rise after reinstatement of the reward. No significant differences for these estimates occurred in the control group. An induced meaning of value thus seems to have increased the perceived size of the valued object.

Extending the logic of this sort of experiment to the filed of symbolism, Bruner and postman 1984 had subjects estimate, by the diaphragm technique, the size of discs bearing the Nazi emblem, the swastika, as a negative value-symbol. They found that a disc containing the former, was judged larger that a disc containing the latter, though both were judged larger that one containing a neutral design. From these results it was tentatively or negatively, is likely to loom larger in his perception.

The studies so far described were concerned with monetary tokens or with symbols representing objects that might be acquired through their use, rather than with the valued objects directly. Will the same results appear when with the latter condition id employed? Beams and Tompson 1952, using seventy children from ten to twelve years of age, shoed to each of them an object of food for which the child had previously expressed strong liking or disliking, and asked him to estimate its size be adjusting a kodochrome image of the object by moving a sliding screen. The distance to which the screen was moved by the subjects was measured and a comparable set of measurements were secured for life size adjustment. The difference between perceptually estimated and life size adjustments was obtained and was found to be significant. Overestimation of size occurred with the liked but not with the disliked food objects. Affectivity, as a special variety of value, seem to play a part in the determination of perceived magnitude. There is one difficulty with this experiment as study of perception. The food object was not in view at the time when the subject made his size estimates. He moved over to another position the room for manipulating the screen adjustment. The accentuation effect my therefore have occurred with respect to the memory of the object rather that in its actual perception. Had there been an actual matching of screen image to food object with both in the field of vision, the effect might not have occurred.

Personality as a perceptual determinant

The personality characteristics of the individual predispose his to perceive things in a manner consistent with those characteristics. Witkin found that people who had difficulties in visually extracting an imbedded figure from its context also found it hard to separate their own bodies perceptually from a tilted environment so as to determine their position with respect to the vertical by gravitational cues alone. Thurstone 1944, employed factor analysis to identify basic variables underlying perceptual differences.

The effect on perception of the emotionally disturbing nature of the stimulus-object

Variable stimuli that are emotionally disturbing or threatening to the individual tend to require a longer recognitions time than neutral words, to be so misperceived as radically to alter their form or meaning and to arouse their characteristics emotional reactions even before they are recognized. 

McGinneis 1949, presented a series of 18 words tachistoscopically to his subjects beginning with an exposure of .01 second and increasing by steps of one one-hundredth of a second until correct recognition was achieved. After each exposure the subject stated what he thought the word was. Eleven of the words were of a “neutral” character, seven were “critical” etc. the results were striking and showed that for neutral word there were more cases in which the word as perceived was structurally similar to the stimulus word that was the case for critical words there were more instances where the word as perceived was structurally, dissimilar or of nonsense character. All the predications of this special hypothesis therefore seemed to confirmed.