Perception test

What do you see in the following figure? 

If you look carefully you should be able to see a vase and/or the profiles of two faces

Which line, (a) or (b) is longer

Most people perceive line B as being longer, however if you measure them you’ll see that they are the same length.  The figure is known as the Muller-Lyer illusion 

The illusion is explained by psychologists as a result of our familiarity with corners of buildings and rooms. The line on the left looks like the corner of a building seen from the outside while the line on the right looks like the corner of a building viewed from the inside. 

If the two lines project the same sized image onto the retina yet line A appears to be closer, then the brain must compensate for this difference and perceive line B as longer. 

What is the symbol in the middle? 

What is the symbol in the middle? 

What is the symbol in the middle? 

Read the words in the triangle aloud.

Read the words again. When you read them very carefully you will notice that the word the is repeated twice.

An explanation for your mistake is that you probably read what you expected to read rather than what is actually there. This is why many people are not good at proof reading their own work.

The contextual influence

Are those lines parallel?

The contextual influence (cont’d)

What can you see?

A WOMAN WITHOUT HER MAN IS NOTHING

How to understand this sentence ?

Males would punctuate the sentence at such: A WOMAN, WITHOUT HER MAN, IS NOTHING.

Whereas, Females punctuate the sentence as: A WOMAN: WITHOUT HER, MAN IS NOTHING.

Observations about perception We see/hear what we want to see/hear

Perception is subjective – it takes place in the mind of the perceiver:

Perception is selective – the person is not able to perceive all the stimuli around us and s/he subconsciously selects the ones to play attention or to react.

Some elements of perception are learned or affected by background & experiences

Peer pressures affect perception (ASCH experiment on lines)

Managerial implication: perception might assist in / distort managers’ judgment of their employees… employee selection, performance expectation, performance evaluation, etc.

Frequently Used Shortcuts in Judging Others

Selective Perception

People selectively interpret what they see on the basis of their interests, background, experience, and attitudes. E.g. The company has poor output this year, engineers may think we should have new machine design, but for human resource managers, they may think employees need better training or wage incentives.

Frequently Used Shortcuts in Judging Others

Halo Effect

Drawing a general impression about an individual on the basis of a single characteristice.g. in a job interview, the interviewer may just focus on the punctuality of the interviewee, ignoring the other characteristics, such as qualification, communication skills….Contrast Effects

Evaluation of a person’s characteristics that are affected by comparisons with other people recently encountered who rank higher or lower on the same characteristics.

Frequently Used Shortcuts in Judging Others

Projection

Attributing one’s own characteristics to other people. e.g. If I love challenges, the other must love them, too.”

Stereotyping

Judging someone on the basis of one’s perception of the group to which that person belongs. e.g. Americans are risk takers, French are good cooks.