The Effect of Expectation on Embedded Figure Perception

Abstract

individual's response to visual stimuli may be modified to varying degrees by social pressure, few, if any, art education researchers have investigated the effects of prophecy or expectation on perceptual style or in situations where visual perception is said to be taught. Expectation, in this instance, is experimentally defined as operations whereby display of interest/disinterest behavior or authoritative predictions regarding subjects' success imply a selffulfilling prophecy. There is ample evidence that perceptual judgments can be affected by training (Gibson, 1969)5. In addition, studies by Salome (1965)15, Efland (1965)4, Rennels (1969)12, Dorethy (1972)3 and others suggest that formal perceptual training strategies hold relevance for performance in the visual arts. Would it be possible, therefore, to affect perceptual learning through the display of expectation behavior? Does such behavior tend to modify the visual/productive skills of artists? What would be the comparative effects of interest and disinterest display upon tests measuring perceptual ability? The answers to these and other questions need specific research. The basic aim of this exploratory study was to investigate the effects of examiner (or teacher) expectancy on performance over perception tasks related to the visual arts.