SELECTIVE PERCEPTION

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CHAPTER1SELECTIVEPERCEPTION"Wedonotfirst see,thendefine,wedefinefirstandthensee." -WalterLippmann(citedinSnyder&Uranowitz, 1978) , , ,butaswillbecomeclear, , (1949).BrunerandPostmanpresentedpeoplewi thaseriesoffiveplayingcardsonatachis-tos cope(amachinethatcandisplaypicturesforve rybriefintervals), !BrunerandPostmanfoundthatittookpeoplemo rethanfourtimeslongertorecognizeatrickca rdthananor-malcard,andtheyfoundthatmostr eactionstotheincongruitycouldbecategoriz edasoneoffourtypes:dominance,compromise, disrup-tion, "perceptualdenial."Forexample,facedwitha blackthreeofhearts, ,formisdominantandcolorisassimilatedtopr iorexpectations,andinthesecondcase,color 1516PERCEPTION,MEMORY, 'sexperi-ment,27of28subjects(or96percent ofthepeople) ,someofBrunerandPostman' "greyish"fourofspades,orthataredsixofclu bswas"thesixofclubsilluminatedbyredlight "(remember,experi-mentalsubjectswereshow nthecardsonatachistoscope).

black four of hearts was a "greyish" four of spades, or that a red six of clubs was "the six of clubs illuminated by red light" (remember, experi­ mental subjects were shown the cards on a tachistoscope). Half of Bruner and Postman's subjects showed compromise responses to red cards, and 11 percent showed compromise responses to blackcards.

  Four, Selective, Card, Perceptions, Selective perception