INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY

H OW TO M E A S U R E B E H AV I O R
P E R C E P T I O N & AT T E N T I O N
CONTENT

BEHAVIOR MEASUREMENT
& RESEARCH PERCEPTION

How Behavior is Measured What is perception

Perceptual Process
Tools of Research Method
Perceptual Selectivity
Types of Research Method
Perceptual Organization
Ethics of Psychological Attention
Research What is attention
Factors Affecting attention
Distraction of Attention
PSYCHOLOGY AS SCIENCE

Empiricism (founded by John Locke) states that the only

source of knowledge comes through our senses e.g.
sight, hearing etc.
This was in contrast to the existing view that knowledge
could be gained solely through the powers of reason and
logical argument (known as rationalism).
Thus, empiricism is the view that all knowledge is based
on, or may come from experience.
 The empirical approach through gaining knowledge through
experience quickly became the scientific approach and
greatly influenced the development of physics and
chemistry in the 17th and 18th centuries.
The idea that knowledge should be gained through
experience, i.e. empirically, turned into a method of inquiry
that used careful observation and experiments to gather
facts and evidence.
EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE

Refers to data being collected through direct observation or

experiment.
Empirical evidence does not rely on argument or belief.
Instead, experiments and observations are carried out carefully
and reported in detail so that other investigators can repeat
and attempt to verify the work.
 OBJECTIVITY
Researchers should remain totally value free when studying;
they should try to remain totally unbiased in their
investigations. I.e. Researchers are not influenced by
personal feelings and experiences.
Objectivity means that all sources of bias are minimized and
that personal or subjective ideas are eliminated. The pursuit
of science implies that the facts will speak for themselves,
even if they turn out to be different from what the
investigator hoped.
CONTROL

All extraneous variables need to be controlled in order to

be able to establish cause (IV) and effect (DV).
HYPOTHESIS TESTING

A statement made at the beginning of an investigation that

serves as a prediction and is derived from a theory. There
are different types of hypotheses (null and alternative),
which need to be stated in a form that can be tested (i.e.
operationalized and unambiguous).
REPLICATION
This refers to whether a particular method and finding

can be repeated with different/same people and/or on

different occasions, to see if the results are similar.

If we get the same results over and over again under the

same conditions, we can be sure of their accuracy beyond

reasonable doubt.

This gives us confidence that the results are reliable and

can be used to build up a body of knowledge or a theory:

vital in establishing a scientific theory.

PREDICTABILITY

We should be aiming to be able to predict future behavior

from the findings of our research.
ATTITUDE MEASUREMENT
Perhaps the most straightforward way of finding out about
someones attitudes would be to ask them.
However, attitudes are related to self-image and social
acceptance (i.e. attitude functions).
In order to preserve a positive self-image, peoples
responses may be affected by social desirability. They may
not well tell about their true attitudes, but answer in a
way that they feel socially acceptable.
BEHAVIOR MEASUREMENT

Attitude measurement can be divided into two basic categories

Direct Measurement (likert scale and semantic differential)

Indirect Measurement (projective techniques)
EVOLUTION OF DIRECT
METHODS
An attitude scale is designed to provide a valid, or accurate, measure of an

individuals social attitude. However, as anyone who has every faked an

attitude scales knows there are shortcomings in these self report scales of

attitudes. There are various problems that affect the validity of attitude

scales. However, the most common problem is that of social desirability.

Socially desirability refers to the tendency for people to give socially

desirable to the questionnaire items. People are often motivated to give

replies that make them appear well adjusted, unprejudiced, open minded

and democratic. Self report scales that measure attitudes towards race,
PROJECTIVE TECHNIQUES

To avoid the problem of social desirability, various indirect measures

of attitudes have been used. Either people are unaware of what is
being measured (which has ethical problems) or they are unable
consciously to affect what is being measured.
THEMATIC APPERCEPTION
TEST
The thematic apperception test (TAT) taps into a persons
unconscious mind to reveal the repressed aspects of their
personality.
 TAT can be used in a variety of ways, from eliciting qualities
associated with different products to perceptions about the
kind of people that might use certain products or services.
EVALUATION OF INDIRECT
METHODS
The major criticism of indirect methods is their lack of objectivity.
Such methods are unscientific and do not objectively measure
attitudes in the same way as a Likert scale.
There is also the ethical problem of deception as often the person
does not know that their attitude is actually being studied when using
indirect methods.
The advantages of such indirect techniques of attitude measurement
are that they are less likely to produce socially desirable responses,
the person is unlikely to guess what is being measured and behavior
should be natural and reliable.
TOOLS OF RESEARCH

Qualitative
Quantitative
 Qualitative psychological research is where the research
findings are not arrived at by statistical or other quantitative
procedures.
Quantitative psychological research is where the research
findings result from mathematical modeling and statistical
estimation or statistical inference. Since qualitative
information can be handled as such statistically, the distinction
relates to method, rather than the topic studied
RESEARCH TYPES

There are three main types of psychological research:

Correlation research
Descriptive research
Experimental research
TYPES OF RESEARCH
METHODS
The Scientific Method
Case Study
Observation
Covert Observation
Overt Observation
Survey
Experimental Method
Lab Experiment
Field Experiment
ETHICAL ISSUES IN
PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH
Informed Consent
Debrief
Protection of Participants
Deception
Confidentiality
Withdrawal from an Investigation
PERCEPTION
PERCEPTION
Perception is our sensory experience of the world around us
and involves both recognizing environmental stimuli and
actions in response to these stimuli. Through the perceptual
process, we gain information about properties and elements of
the environment that are critical to our survival. Perception
not only creates our experience of the world around us; it
allows us to act within our environment.
PERCEPTUAL PROCESS

The perceptual process is a sequence of steps that begins with

the environment and leads to our perception of a stimulus and
an action in response to the stimulus. This process is continual,
but you do not spend a great deal of time thinking about the
actual process that occurs when you perceive the many stimuli
that surround you at any given moment.
 PERCEPTUAL SELECTION

The world around us is filled with an infinite number of stimuli that we

might attend to, but our brains do not have the resources to pay attention

to everything. Thus, the first step of perception is the (usually unconscious,

but sometimes intentional) decision of what to attend to. Depending on the

environment, and depending on us as individuals, we might focus on a

familiar stimulus or something new. When we attend to one specific thing in

our environmentwhether it is a smell, a feeling, a sound, or something else

entirelyit becomes the attended stimulus.

Perceptual selection is driven by internal and external factors.
Internal Factors
Personality
Experience
Motivation
EXTERNAL FACTORS

Size
Intensity
Contrast
Motion
Repetition
Novelty & Familiarity
 PERCEPTUAL ORGANIZATION

Once we have chosen to attend to a stimulus in the environment

(consciously or unconsciously, though usually the latter), the choice sets off
a series of reactions in our brain. This neural process starts with the
activation of our sensory receptors (touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing).
The receptors transduce the input energy into neural activity, which is
transmitted to our brains, where we construct a mental representation of
the stimulus (or, in most cases, the multiple related stimuli) called a
percept. An ambiguous stimulus may be translated into multiple percepts,
experienced randomly, one at a time, in what is called "multistable
perception."
PERCEPTUAL ORGANIZATION

After certain perceptions are selected, they can be organized differently.

The following factors are those that determine perceptual organization:
Figure & Ground
Grouping
Closure
Proximity
Similarity
Constancy
Context
PERCEPTUAL
INTERPRETATION
After we have attended to a stimulus, and our brains have received
and organized the information, we interpret it in a way that makes
sense using our existing information about the world. Interpretation
simply means that we take the information that we have sensed and
organized and turn it into something that we can categorize. For
instance, in the Rubin's Vase illusion mentioned earlier, some
individuals will interpret the sensory information as "vase," while
some will interpret it as "faces." This happens unconsciously
thousands of times a day. By putting different stimuli into categories,
PERCEPTUAL SET

A perceptual set refers to a predisposition to perceive

things in a certain way. In other words, we often tend to
notice only certain aspects of a object or situation while
ignoring other details.
A perceptual set is basically a tendency to view things only
in a certain way. Perceptual sets can impact how we
interpret and respond to the world around us and can be
influenced by a number of different factors.
HOW PERCEPTUAL SET
WORKS?
"Perception can also be influenced by an individual's
expectations, motives, and interests. The term perceptual
set refers to the tendency to perceive objects or
situations from a particular frame of reference. Perceptual
sets usually lead us to reasonably accurate conclusions.
A perceptual set is a good example of what is known as top-
down processing. In top-down processing, perceptions begin
with the most general and move toward the more specific.
Such perceptions are heavily influenced by expectations and
prior knowledge. If we expect something to appear in a certain
way, we are more likely to perceive it according to our
expectations.
 Existing schemas, mental frameworks, and concepts often
guide perceptual sets. For example, people have a strong
schema for faces, making it easier to recognize familiar
human faces in the world around us. It also means that
when we look at an ambiguous image, we are more likely
to see it as a face than some other type of object.
FACTORS AFFECTING
PERCEPTUAL SET
Motivation
Expectation
Culture
Emotions
Attitudes
PERCEPTUAL SET IN REAL
LIFE
Researchers have shown that perceptual sets can have a
dramatic impact on day-to-day life. In one experiment,
young children were found to enjoy French fries more
when they were served in a McDonald's bag rather than
just a plain white bag.
ATTENTION

Attention is the behavioral and cognitive process of

selectively concentrating on a discrete aspect of
information, whether deemed subjective or objective,
while ignoring other perceivable
information. Attention has also been referred to as the
allocation of limited processing
FACTORS AFFECTING
ATTENTION
There are two types of factors affecting attention:
Objective Factors
Subjective Factors
OBJECTIVE FACTORS

Movement
Intensity
Novelty
Size
Change
Repetition
Clarity
Color
Contrast
SUBJECTIVE FACTORS

Interest
Motives
Mental Set
Emotional State
Habits
CONDITIONS OF ATTENTION

Fluctuation of Attention
Distraction of Attention
Division of Attention
Span of Attention/Apprehension