Exposure, Satiation and Stimulus Discriminability

Exposure, Satiation and Stimulus Discriminability Research Critical Evaluation
Psyc101

Exposure, Satiation and Stimulus Discriminability Research Critical Evaluation

The study of Exposure, Satiation and Stimulus Discriminability is a scientific study of the effects of exposure of different stimulus on the male brain. Not just how stimulus is effected by exposure but how much exposure and how much satiation is optimal for the male brain to perceive a stimulus as good, bad, likeable or unlikeable. (Philip Shaver, 1972, p. 270) The study conducted used four different experiments. The first three experiments used the same audience that was composed of male college students from the University of Michigan, mostly in the undergraduate level of their studies. The fourth study used female undergraduates from the University of Michigan. (Philip Shaver, 1972, pp. 270-280)
The hypothesis of this study was that depending on the stimuli, the exposure of stimuli and the saturation of exposure one could determine the effects of these variables on the human psyche and the lasting effects of the exposure of stimuli. (Philip Shaver, 1972, p. 270) This study is a paramount study in psychology not just for the basis of science but for a lot more fields out there. Philip Shaver and David Van Kreveld exposed the participants to numerous different stimuli for a measured amount of exposure and saturation in this study. (Philip Shaver, 1972, p. 270)
Philip Shaver, David Van Kreveld, R.B. Zajonc and Carol Tavris were the writers and administrators of this study. They all had the idea of looking at the hypothesis in different lights by using multiple experiments to ensure the results focused on one variable at a time. (Philip Shaver, 1972, pp. 270-280) This is why the study uses a different stimuli and group of participants in each of the four experiments. (Philip Shaver, 1972, pp. 270-280)

Body
Experiment one The first experiment was conducted using an audience of seventy-two male students from the University of Michigan. Most of these males were in their undergraduate study. Anyone that had any earlier experience of the stimuli used was disqualified and replaced. (Philip Shaver, 1972, p. 271)This experiment used reproductions of paintings from the 1950’s as the stimuli; all the reproductions were in color and the size of a post card. (Philip Shaver, 1972, p. 271) The paintings came from the following painting were used as reproductions: “Boffle, Peinture; Baumeister, Diver and reflection; Cassinari, Composition; Hofman, Border; Le Moal, Ratines; Marca-Relli, Midi d'ete; Marini, Le cheval; Masson, Esprits animaux; Schneider,
Peinture 95 B; Soulages, Composition; Suga'i, Ono; and Zack, Oil.” (Philip Shaver, 1972, p. 271) During this experiment every participant was ran through individually and shown one of the replications at a time for a different set of time per stimuli. (Philip Shaver, 1972, p. 271) The participants either were asked how they felt about each stimulus when they saw it, if they liked it or disliked it. (Philip Shaver, 1972, pp. 271-272)
Experiment 2 During the second experiment, the researchers decided to use different stimuli since they believed that the stimuli in the first experiment could be discriminable, so instead of using multiple paintings they decided to use one nonrepresentational painting in a postcard reproduction cut into 12 equal parts. (Philip Shaver, 1972, p. 272) The subjects for this experiment were similar to that of the first experiment; in this case, they decided to use 36 male undergraduates. (Philip Shaver, 1972, pp. 272-273) The Process for this experiment was almost identical as the first experiment where each subject in this experiment will be evaluated individually and each part of the painting, which is the stimuli, will be given a set time of exposure and saturation to see how the different exposure and saturation affect the outcome of the stimuli’s likeability and un-likability. (Philip Shaver, 1972, pp. 273-274)
Experiment 3 In this experiment the stimuli was changed once again and this was done to ensure that the experiment was only being affected by one variable, which was the stimuli. The stimuli in this experiment were a group of 12 photos of men. The photos were of men in varying age groups, and varying cloths, also the men’s pose would vary as well and all the photos were taken from a college yearbook. (Philip Shaver, 1972, p. 274) The procedure for administrating the experiment was kept the same as the first two experiments, where the subjects were exposed to a different picture for a different amount of exposure and saturation individually. (Philip Shaver, 1972, pp. 274-275)
Experiment 4 In this experiment, the process was changed a little bit. The subjects were changed from men to 32 female undergraduate who were all in a psychology course. This experiment also consisted of two different parts where the subjects would be exposed to the stimuli in two separate 30-minute sessions one week apart. The stimuli used in this experiment were Trigrams. (Philip Shaver, 1972, pp. 275-276) In the first session, the subjects were exposed to the stimuli for as before a set time of exposure and saturation. (Philip Shaver, 1972, pp. 275-276) During the second session, the subjects were exposed to the same set of stimuli to see if there was a different reaction after a week from the first session. (Philip Shaver, 1972, pp. 275-276) This experiment was also a little different in the rating, where the subjects were asked to rate the stimuli on a scale from most pleasing to least pleasing. (Philip Shaver, 1972, p. 276)
Conclusion
Results The results of the experiments were very interesting. Some of the experiments showed a curvilinear result when looking at exposure of the stimuli. Some of the experiments showed that the more exposure of a certain stimuli could have a negative effect on the likability of the stimuli. One the other hand some extra exposure resulted in increased likability of the stimuli used.
For example in the first experiment an exposure of two resulted in the most likability in the stimuli where increased saturation of the stimuli resulted in increased dislike of the stimuli. (Philip Shaver, 1972, p. 271) In the second experiment resulted in two different results depending on the similarity or distinctness of the stimuli. If the stimuli were similar to others, it would have a positive correlation to the exposure increase and the favorability of the stimuli. Where if the stimuli were distinct the results showed that increased saturation of exposure of the stimuli would result in a negative correlation in favorability. (Philip Shaver, 1972, p. 273) In the third experiment, the results showed a distinct relation to the exposure frequency, which also increased the favorability of attitude towards the faces shown. (Philip Shaver, 1972, pp. 274-275) In the fourth experiment, the results showed that the favorability of the stimuli did not show a frequency affect nor did it show a saturation effect. (Philip Shaver, 1972, p. 276) In this experiment there was a slight decrease in favorability when the exposure was around ten then it would increases again when the exposure was around twenty-five. (Philip Shaver, 1972, pp. 276-277) Another result of the fourth experiment was that the stability of results was not affected much between the first week test and the second test.
The results could have been influenced by the fact that the subjects, which were one of the dependent variables, were changed in each experiment. In addition, the independent variable was the stimuli used. Each experiment had different results and each experiment had different stimuli. This will obviously have the outcomes that it did as we learned in our book that the independent variable is the part of the experiment that determines the results. (Carole Wade, 2012, p. 22)
Future Research Ideas Some research ideas from this Study could be vast. One Idea would be to examine the same experiments on a group of Americans where the stimuli would be political ads. This research could result in knowing how much exposure of a certain add would result in the best favorability of a certain canident over another. Another Idea for a follow up research would be in the area of marketing. If the subjects were exposed to a stimuli of certain marketing ads could result in the retail industry knowing how to expose their potential clients to new products. The third idea for research following this study could be the study of children and the effect of exposure and saturation of violent video games. This study could show the people finally weather or not that violent games are the root of increased violence in children.
Real Life Results The results of this study do have real life results. The way that this study impact the real word is that now using the information paint galleries and schools could use the data collected to determine what is the best exposure for different stimuli without having over saturation of the stimuli to increase favorability of the different stimuli used. For example if an Art gallery wanted to increase the amount of customers to come and see a certain piece of art they could use the results in this study to determine the best exposure and frequency of exposure to increase the outcome of the paintings guests.

Works Cited
Carole Wade, C. T. (2012). Invitation to Psychology, Fifth Edition. Boston: Prentice Hall.

Philip Shaver, D. V. (1972). Exposure, Satiation and Stimulus Discriminability. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology Vol. 21, No. 3, 270-280.