The Effect of Motivation on Perception (AQA GCSE Psychology): Revision Note
Exam code: 8182
Motivation & perception
Motivation is a strong desire or need that drives behaviour, e.g. hunger, thirst, wanting to succeed
Motivation is a factor in perceptual set: when we want something, we are more likely to notice it and it appears more attractive
Wanting something can make it seem bigger, brighter or more vivid than it really is – this is perceptual accentuation
e.g. when you're hungry, food adverts seem to jump out at you and the food in them looks more appealing
Being in a deprived state (hungry, thirsty, tired) is a powerful motivator and makes the thing we lack especially noticeable
Examiner Tips and Tricks
Remember that motivation can occur at a conscious and an unconscious level: someone may be aware that they are motivated to perceive specific stimuli but it is also possible that this can happen without them being consciously aware of it.
Gilchrist & Nesberg (1952)
Aim: To find out whether food deprivation affects how food pictures are perceived – specifically, whether hungry people see them as brighter
Sample: An experimental group of 26 undergraduates who volunteered to go without food for 20 hours, and a control group who were not deprived of food. Participants were randomly assigned to conditions
Method:
Participants were shown four slides of meals (e.g. T-bone steak, fried chicken, hamburgers, spaghetti), each for 15 seconds
The projector was then turned off and on again with the picture dimmer.
Participants adjusted a knob to make the picture look the same as before
They were told it was a test of matching pictures
Results:
Food-deprived participants turned the brightness up higher than the control group – they remembered the food as brighter than it actually was
The control group showed no such effect
Conclusion:
Hunger is a motivating factor that affects perception
Being deprived of a basic need creates a heightened sensitivity to related stimuli, making food appear brighter and more appealing (perceptual accentuation)
This shows motivation affects perceptual set
Evaluation of the effect of motivation on perception
Strengths
Support from similar studies: Sanford (1936) deprived participants of food for up to four hours and then showed them ambiguous pictures. The longer they had gone without food, the more likely they were to see the pictures as food (e.g. a brown blob as a hamburger). Similar findings from a different method increase confidence that the effect is real
Use of a control group: because the non-deprived group showed no brightness effect, the researchers could be confident that the difference was caused by hunger (the IV) and not by something else, such as how people generally judge brightness. This allows a cause-and-effect conclusion
Weaknesses
Ethical issues: going without food for 20 hours causes discomfort, and although participants gave consent they may not have fully understood how unpleasant it would feel. Once they had started, they may have felt unable to withdraw without spoiling the study, so it is questionable whether consent was fully informed
Low ecological validity: participants judged the brightness of pictures of food in a lab, which is not how motivation affects perception in everyday life. Using real food, or a more realistic task, might have produced different results, so the findings may not generalise beyond the study
Worked Example
Here is an example of a question you might be asked on this topic - for AO1 and AO3.
AO1: You need to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of key concepts, ideas, theories and research.
AO2: You need to apply your knowledge and understanding, usually referring to the ‘stem’ in order to do so (the stem is the example given before the question)
AO3: You need to analyse and evaluate key concepts, ideas, theories and research.
After each featured question there is a ‘model’ answer i.e. one which would achieve top marks in the exam.
Question: Describe Gilchrist and Nesberg’s study into how motivation affects perception. Evaluate the research method used in this study. [9]
AO1 = 4 marks; AO3 = 5 marks
Model answer:
AO1:
One group of participants was deprived of food for 20 hours whilst the other group ate normal meals during this time.
Each participant was shown four projected images of food and then the projector was turned off and then on again. Participants were asked to adjust the brightness of each slide back to its original setting.
Participants in the group that had been deprived of food adjusted the images to be brighter than the participants in the group that had eaten normally.
These results indicate how images of food were perceived depended on how hungry participants were. This showed that the motivation of hunger affected how participants perceived food.
AO3:
This was a lab experiment in which participants perceived images of food under highly controlled conditions.
This control is useful for the researcher who has eliminated many extraneous variables (e.g. age of participants) so they can be confident that the IV has affected the DV if the results show an effect.
Using a standardised procedure (e.g. all participants viewed the same images) means that the study can be replicated to check for reliability.
Lab experiments however often involve artificial tasks (such as responding to images of food rather than responding to actual food) which can reduce the validity of the results.
High control can decrease the validity of the results because it increases the artificiality of the performance of the participants. This means it is difficult to generalise research findings to predict behaviour in a more normal setting.
Examiner Tips and Tricks
Gilchrist & Nesberg (1952) is a NAMED STUDY on the specification which means that you could be asked specific questions about it in the exam. Be sure to learn the details well.
Examiner Tips and Tricks
All of the topics in the ‘Factors Affecting Perception’ section of the specification can be explained using the term ‘perceptual set’. This term refers to the ways in which an individual prefers to take in the world around them i.e. what they notice, what they ignore. Perceptual set will be determined by a range of factors which will be dealt with individually across these pages: culture; emotion; expectation.
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