An experimental inquiry into the concept of perceptual defence.

Abstract

Experiments on concept of perceptual defence can be considered as result of two research interests: (1) attempts to relate experimental work to clinical findings and (2) attempts to determine precise variables involved in association between personality and perception. concept of perceptual defence is based on fact that subjects appear to show higher thresholds to taboo words and that autonomic responses to such words may be made before they are correctly recognized. This concept has been criticized on grounds that results may be more simply interpreted in terms of factors of word frequency and of suppression of responses by subject. Other work has attempted to show that individual performance requires prime consideration.This study has attempted to take account of these factors. A word‐association test consisting of most frequent words in Thorndike and Lorge count was given to all subjects. On basis of each subject's results, two lists were prepared for each subject, each list consisting of emotional and neutral words. A tachistoscopic presentation to subject of one list was followed two weeks later by a presentation of second list. It was found that six of twelve subjects showed higher and two subjects lower thresholds to emotional words on both occasions. correlation between two tests in terms of individual performance was highly significant.Analysis of this and other experiments shows that importance of factors of word frequency when familiar material is used remains to be determined. Further, some means of studying such factors other than by use of word counts is necessary. It is suggested that a quantifiable ‘hypothesis’ or ‘set’ theory possesses greatest advantages for an understanding of this area of research.