EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOG (II) RECORD SHEET

MAX WERTHEIMER: APPARENT MOVEMENT

Possibility of perceiving things as moving when in reality they are

immobile

When two lights are placed with a short distance between them and alternatively
flickered on and off, one will see a single light moving back and forth (apparent
movement)

No control group Perception of

single light

Alternative
flickering of light

Two sources of light were arranged at a ago distance from each other. And then turned on alternatively.
If the spatial difference, their time intervals and brightness is set right, they will be assumed a single
moving stimulus. This provided the base for production and making of motion pictures. Since our mind
conceives the numerous stimulus as changes or movement in a single unit.(gestalt)
As brain consists of conducting fluid, in which charged particles are dissolved. Perhaps sensory input,
affecting the cells of the brain, causes currents to flow inside the brain, and the resulting distribution of
charged particles in space may be the immediate cause of the perception that results. Thus one light
goes off and the other goes on, the distribution of excitation in the brain may move from one location
through the intervening points to the other. Current then should flow between them.

The observer adds fusion to the two or more stimulus I.e. instead of perceiving them as separate
entities, we consider them as on whole sequence.

We cannot differentiate between two distinct unit, rather we choose to focus on the properties of
what we collectively perceive.

Our brain conceives things as three-dimensional.

 EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOG (II) RECORD SHEET
JEROME BRUNER: MOTIVATION AND PERCEPTION

Simple and perceptual process can be affected and distorted by our

motives and values

Subject will perceive more valuable coins to the larger in size

Participants saw a Perception

Tested in the same way as the
circular spot of light
experimental, but with grey of size
on a screen in front
cardboard disks instead of coins of them

Value of money

A knob was available that controlled the size of the light and each child (participant) was given
some practice in the use of it before.
Their task was to estimate the size of coins by adjusting the circle of light to the appropriate size.

All children overestimated their sizes relative to their actual size

The degree of overestimation depended on the value of the coin, not on its size
The estimates were much greater for the non-affluent children than for the affluent ones
EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOG (II) RECORD SHEET

SELIG HECHT: ADAPTATION TO THE DARK

How do people adapt to the darkness?

When dark adaptation occurs, the eye will become more sensitive to the
dark which means that the visual threshold will be lowered.

Participants in a Vision threshold

dark room

Time spent in the

dark

 The participant was made to look into a microscope eyepiece in a dark room, then a
very dim light was presented through the eyepiece and the participant was asked if he
or she can see the light. If the participant said, “No,” gradually the intensity of light
was increased until he or she said “Yes.”
 The intensity of the light that can just barely be seen was then taken to be his or her
visual threshold on that trial.
 Visual threshold was measured repeatedly for 40mins.

Threshold of visual intensity went down as the eye became more sensitive with time due to dark
adaptation
 EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOG (II) RECORD SHEET
ERNST WEBER: MUSCLE SENSE

Do people have muscle sense?

Different threshold will be smaller if the participants lift the weights instead
of holding them on table

Participants who had their hands Participants who hefted

extended on a table and the weights the weights, lifting them Difference
were placed on the palm without slightly and lowering threshold
movement of the hand or arm. them again. Detection of
difference in
Various weights were placed in little Use of muscles to
variable weights.
boxes of constant size. lift weights

In the first condition, the participants had their hands extended on a table and the weights were
simply placed on the palm without movement of the hand or arm. Weber measured the difference in
threshold.
Weber then measured how different in weight the two objects had to be before the participants were
able to detect that difference. (Difference threshold)
Under the second condition, instead of having the weights placed on the hand, the participants
would heft the weights, lifting them slightly and lowering them again. The difference was measured
again.

The participants were more sensitive to small differences in weight when they used their muscles
than when they did not.
People have muscle sense which means that muscles provide them with information that was
resulting in greater sensitivity in the participants.