The Effect of Motivation on Perception (AQA GCSE Psychology)
Revision Note
Written by: Claire Neeson
Reviewed by: Lucy Vinson
Motivation & perception
Motivation involves a strong desire or reason for performing an action or engaging in specific behaviours/cognitions e.g. ‘I am motivated to do well in my Psychology GCSE so I will put in lots of revision’
In short, motivation affects perception as it increases the attractiveness of an action/object/person/behaviour e.g. ‘I wish I had enough money to buy those trainers’: this is known as perceptual accentuation (desire increases when what we want is out of reach)
Being in a deprived state (e.g. hungry, thirsty, tired) can lead to perceptual accentuation as the object of desire becomes more acute and noticeable due to the deprivation of e.g. ‘I can’t stop thinking about my bed, I’m so exhausted!’
If someone feels hungry, for example, they may find that adverts for food stand out and take on more of a significance for them than if they had been full
Motivation on Perception Diagram
Hunger may mean that the more filling (and ‘less healthy’) foods stand out more and seem more appealing.
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)
The researchers’ aim was to test whether food deprivation would have an effect on the perception of food-related images
26 university students were randomly assigned to one of two conditions:
To go without food for 20 hours
To consume food within 20 hours (the second condition acted as the control group)
In both conditions the participants viewed four slides showing different foods (e.g. fried chicken, burger)
After each slide had been shown the projector was turned off and then on again, and each participant was asked to adjust the slide for brightness so that it looked as it had looked when they first viewed it
The food-deprived participants adjusted the slides to a higher level of brightness (which was a brighter level than that used on the original slide) than the control group participants did
The researchers concluded that food deprivation influenced perceptual accentuation:
The deprived participants saw the food as brighter than the control participants did, hence they were motivated to see the food as more appealing due to having been deprived of it for 20 hours
Does this cake shine brightly to you?...(if so you may need to eat something soon!)
Evaluation of the effect of motivation on perception
Strengths
There is good application to this theory: it could be used to inform weight-loss programmes and to help people understand the relationship between perception and food intake/choice
The use of a control group was important as it meant that the researchers were able to measure the effect of the independent variable on the [popover id="3bmtrErjhM8LAzHC" label="dependent variable"]
Weaknesses
There are some ethical issues which the researchers should have considered and which, if neglected, could have led to participants being harmed in the study e.g. no participants with diabetes should take part due to the risks involved in them being food-deprived
The study lacks validity as it asked participants to rate images of food rather than presenting them with actual food (the task was artificial)
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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