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This demonstration raises a number of questions and issues of social perception, but the main point
illustrated is the power of first impressions. The group that judged the performer brightest was the
“descending performance” group. That is, those who saw a brilliant performance to begin with and then
saw it deteriorate as time went by. Why?
Seemingly, perceivers make snap judgments. They had decided how smart the guy was by the fifth, eighth,
or tenth trial. And, even when they saw the guy’s performance deteriorate, they were unwilling to give up
their original attribution. “Well, he’s bright, so he must have gotten bored, or stopped trying this silly, easy
task, or something . . .“ For the person who began doing poorly, and improved: “He is clearly a bozo. But he
must have gotten the message and really started trying. Finally, he caught on. Clearly, he’s slow.”
Again, the perceivers were unwilling to give up their first impression. They were reduced to explaining
away the contradictory evidence by coming up with ad hoc motivational explanations to account for the
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change in performance.
In short, it seems that all the adages about “putting your best foot forward” are right. Repairing the
damages of a first impression gone awry is one tough assignment. (See Jones et al., 1972, and Jellison &
Blanche, 1976.)
You might discuss research that shows how people who are randomly assigned to ask tough questions are
automatically perceived as more knowledgeable than those randomly assigned to answer them. This
research suggests that people fail to discount adequately for the constraints that roles impose on behavior.
(See Ross, Amabile & Steinmetz, 1977.)
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Jellison, J. M., & Blanche, J. G. (1976). The Effects of Pattern of Performance and Order of Presentation on Recall
and Attribution of Ability. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 2, 47-50.
Jones, E. E., & Pittman, L. (1982). Toward a Comprehensive Theory of Self-Presentation. In J. Suls (Ed.), The Self in
Social Interaction (Vol. 1). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Ross, L., Amabile, T., & Steinmetz, J. (1977). Social Rules, Social Control and Biases in the Social Perception
Process. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 485-494.
Schlenker, B. R. (1980). Impression Management. The Self-Concept Social Identity and Interpersonal Relations.
Monterey, CA: Brooks/Cole.
Snyder, M., & Swann, W. B., Jr., (1978). When Actions Reflect Attitudes: The Politics of Impression Management.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36, 1202-1212.
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COPING WITH THE ENVIRONMENT WHILE BEING
TEMPORARILY BLIND
This is a special out-of-class assignment that may be given for extra credit or used as the basis for class
discussion, at the instructor’s discretion.
OBJECTIVES
1. To give students the opportunity of having the unique sensory-perceptual experience of not being
sighted for some period of time (several hours to one day).
2. To compare anticipated reactions of students with their actual experiences.
3. To demonstrate the value of experiential learning.
OVERVIEW
We all wonder from time to time what life would be like or how we might be different if some sensory
attribute we value and rely on were suddenly changed: such as our hearing; sense of smell, taste, or feel; or
vision. Here is a way for students to test the consequences of one such loss-temporary blindness.
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
One of the primary research strategies for studying the operation of psychological and physiological
processes involved in well-learned, highly practiced, or apparently inborn behaviors is to disrupt them.
Such behaviors, precisely because they usually function so well, are taken for granted and are therefore not
subjected to the scientific scrutiny and analysis they may deserve. Investigation of the variables and
processes responsible for maintaining normal functioning often proceeds by creating conditions that
prevent, block, or modify the occurrence of the behavior pattern, subject it to unusual stress, or cause it to be
manifested in a deviant or abnormal form.
Sometimes such “experimental manipulations” are produced by naturally existing conditions-as with
genetic mutations, birth defects, accidents, marked environmental changes, or being reared in a situation
that is atypical for other members of a given, comparable species or culture. For example, brain functioning
was initially studied through observation of what specific behavioral functions were lost (temporarily or
permanently) when tumors were removed from the brains of epileptics or when people suffered destruction
of brain tissue from poisons, diseases, or physical damage in accidents or warfare. To study the relative
effects of heredity and environment on behavior, psychologists originally resorted to intensive analysis of
feral children who were found abandoned in the wilderness, allegedly reared by animals.
On a more personal level, you may have become aware of the phenomenon of sleep only when you had
insomnia; or you may have become sensitized to the normally effortless process of inhaling oxygen and
exhaling carbon dioxide when you had asthma, worked at high altitudes, or lived in a smog-filled city.
While psychologists do study the consequences of natural disturbance of normal functions, they prefer to
discover techniques by which such disturbances can be experimentally induced under controlled
observational conditions-and then reversed. Thus, the individual’s behavior can be studied before the
intervention, while the disruption is occurring, and then again after the original conditions are restored. For
example, to study brain functions, physiologists can apply small amounts of electric current to brain sites
and record temporary alterations in functions that persist only as long as the stimulation is continued.
Similarly, it has been shown, by delaying auditory feedback with special apparatus, how much we depend
on receiving immediate auditory feedback for talking in a coherent, integrated fashion.
Perhaps the most important sense you possess is one you take most for granted because of the usually
reliable and efficient way in which it operates. For sighted people, vision is not a gift but a given. We are
rarely aware of the complex set of visual cues we depend on in virtually every activity we carry out.
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Moreover, reliance on visual cues makes us less dependent upon the cues provided by our other senses.
Finally, with vision comes a measure of independence–we can get where we want, when we want, without
help from others. But suppose you suddenly lost the use of your eyesight?