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Perception is our ability to experience through senses such as tasting, smelling, hearing, seeing and touching objects.
Even if two people were standing in the same spot and looking at the same object, they would perceive the objects differently. This is because our beliefs, thoughts, experiences, cognitive abilities, culture, and many other factors influence how we perceive things. The Bruner and Minturn Study of Perceptual Set attempted to investigate empirically how expectations influence perception.
- We will start by looking at what the perceptual set means and provide a quick summary of the Bruner and Minturn study.
- Moving on, we will explore some factors, such as expectation, which research has suggested influence our perception.
- We will delve into the aim of Bruner and Minturn's study, the procedure of the research and the Bruner and Minturn study results to see if the study provides supporting evidence of expectation influencing perceptual sets.
- Finally, we will go through some Bruner and Minturn evaluation points.
Fig. 1, According to the Perceptual Set theory, many factors affect how we perceive the world.
What is a Perceptual Set?
As we discussed earlier, perception is the information that is processed that we receive from our senses. Perception is an individualistic, active process influenced by our subjective experiences, thoughts, beliefs, and behaviour.
A perceptual set is the tendency to perceive something in a particular way due to other factors (past experiences or current situations/contexts); when perceiving the environment, we tend to notice some things and ignore others.
An example of a perceptual set can be seen in if you are thirsty. If shopping for clothes whilst thirsty, you'll be more likely to notice drink machines or stores offering drinks you like.
In our everyday life, we see an enormous amount of information. If our brain processes everything that we sense, the brain would probably not be able to keep up, and we would be exhausted. This is where our perceptual set comes in; it stops our brain from over-working by taking over tasks and improving the efficiency of perception.
Although many factors affect our perceptual set, today, we will focus on understanding how our expectations can influence our perceptual set.
Aim of Bruner and Minturn's study
Bruner and Minturn's study aimed to identify if expectations influenced the participant's perceptual set. The aim was investigated by exploring if priming participants to a stimulus object affected how they perceived an ambiguous figure.
Priming is a cognitive technique that manipulates and affects our thinking and behaviour. The priming technique involves showing someone a stimulus followed by later related stimuli. As the stimuli are related, it usually causes cognitive biases and influences responses, thoughts and behaviours.
In a Psychology experiment, participants watched an advert of a fast food chain restaurant (priming stimuli) and were then shown a list of words; half related to the video and half unrelated.
The hypothetical experiment aimed to see if participants were able to free-recall words that were related to the priming stimuli better than those that were unrelated.
Bruner and Minturn Study Procedure
The study was carried out on 24 college students that were based in the US.
The study used an independent group design, and the participants were split into two groups:
- Group 1: the first half of the participants were shown four letters (e.g. K, S, Z, C) followed by the ambiguous figure, then four numbers (e.g. 2, 8, 10, 14) followed by the ambiguous figure and then a mix of numbers and letters (e.g. 10, C, D, 8) and then the ambiguous figure. In the first group, they would have expected to see a letter, a number, or a letter when presented with the ambiguous figure during each trial.
- Group 2: the procedure was counterbalanced in the latter half of the participants, meaning they were first presented with a series of numbers. The letters and then the mix of both before the ambiguous figure was presented in each trial.
In each group, the letter B was presented as an ambiguous figure, a broken-up B that could easily be interpreted as the number 13 or the letter B.
The stimuli were presented on a screen. At first, they were shown for 30 m/s; however, over time, this increased to approximately 20 m/s.
During the study, participants were deceived as they were not told the true aims of the study. Participants were instructed that they were going to complete a number-letter recognition task. During the study, participants were instructed to draw the stimuli as soon as they recognised it and as fast as possible.
The purpose of these instructions was to ensure that the researcher measured how expectations affected perception rather than recognising the ambiguous figure.
In the Bruner and Minturn study, the independent variable was the trials, e.g. whether the number, letters or the mixed number letter design was presented before the ambiguous figure and the dependent variable was how the participant interpreted the ambiguous figure.
Fig. 2, Example of the Bruner and Minturn ambiguous figure used to investigate whether expectations influence how we perceive objects.
Bruner and Minturn Study Results
Regardless of the group participants were in, when presented the:
- Series of numbers, the majority of participants drew a figure that resembled 13.
- Series of letters, the majority of participants drew a figure that resembled B.
- A mix of numbers and letters, there were differing responses; some looked like the number 13 and some like the letter B.
In the study, no statistical analyses were carried out.
From the study results, it can be concluded that our expectations influence how we perceive stimuli. In terms of the Perceptual Set theory, when presented with trials of numbers, our brain becomes biased and unconsciously predicts that the ambiguous figure resembles a number even though the figure looks like a B too.
Bruner and Minturn Study Evaluation
Let's start by looking at some of the positive aspects of the Bruner and Minturn Study of the Perceptual Set.
- A strength of the study is that it used a counterbalancing method as an experimental control technique. The benefit of this is that it allows us to identify that the order of whether words or numbers were presented first did not affect what was found in the study.
- Another strength of the study is that the findings can help us understand more about human thinking. It can explain why we sometimes make mistakes even when the stimulus is right in front of us.
If you're reading a book about rabbits and there's a typo where a rabbit is written as rabbi instead, you may miss this and continue to read it as rabbit as this is what you expect to be written in the book.
However, the Bruner and Minturn (1955) study have some weaknesses.
- The study was carried out on a small sample of 24 participants based in the US; therefore, the study can be considered ethnocentric and non-representative of the population. So, it isn't easy to generalise the findings.
- On the topic of generalisability, as the researchers did not carry out any statistical tests, the study cannot be used to make inferences about the population.
According to the Scientific Method, inferences can be made about the population when a researcher finds significant statistical findings.
- Moreover, as the study used an independent group design, it does not account for individual differences that may affect the study's validity. Maybe, if the second group were presented with letters first and then numbers, the results would have differed.
- Think about real life. Do we usually look at ambiguous figures? No, right, so can this study be applied to a real-life setting? When a study can’t be applied to real-life settings, it is criticised for lacking mundane realism and ecological validity.
Bruner and Minturn Study of Perceptual Set - Key takeaways
- Bruner and Minturn's study aimed to identify if expectations influenced the participant's perceptual set.
- The study was carried out on 24 college students that were based in the US.
- Participants were split into two groups; the first was shown letters, then numbers, and then a mixture of both before an ambiguous figure was presented. The same method was used in the second group, but the numbers and letter trials were counterbalanced.
- During the study, participants were instructed to draw the stimuli as soon as they recognised the stimuli and as fast as possible.
- From the study results, it can be concluded that our expectations influence how we perceive stimuli. However, we should consider the strengths and weaknesses of the study before further generalising it to the population.
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Frequently Asked Questions about Bruner and Minturn Study of Perceptual Set
What was the aim of the Bruner and Minturn experiment?
Bruner and Minturn's study aimed to identify if the participant's perceptual set was influenced by expectations.
What did Bruner and Minturn mean by perception set?
A perceptual set is defined as the tendency to perceive something in a particular way due to the presence of other factors (past experiences or current situations/contexts); when perceiving the environment we tend to notice some things and ignore others.
What did Bruner and Minturn mean by expectation?
In the Bruner and Minturn (1955) study they investigated whether we expect to see either a number or letter influenced how participants perceived an ambiguous figure.
What is perceptual set theory?
Perceptual Set theory proposes that our perceptual abilities are an active process that relies on three processes: selection, making inferences and interpreting stimuli.
Why is perceptual set sometimes referred to as expectancy?
They are based on similar concepts surrounding perception. Our expectancy influences how we perceive a stimulus. For example, if you're reading a book about rabbits and there's a typo where a rabbit is written as rabbi instead, you may miss this and continue to read it as rabbit as this is what you expect to be written in the book.
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