Set is the term applied to the tendency of a person to pay attention to certain features of a situation. The sprinter is set when he is waiting for the race to begin at the crack of the starter's gun. A tie salesman is set to notice his customer's neckwear; a shoe salesman, his shoes. Some sets are habitual; others are determined by the immediate aspects of a situation, including instructions as to what we are to observe. Right now you are set to learn about the role of set as a perceptual determinant.
Consider the following fc:.cts, keeping in mind that you will later be questioned about them. At the first floor of a building an elevator starts with six occupants; it stops at the second floor where two people get off and four get on; four persons get on and one gets off at the sixth floor; on the eighth floor, two people get off and three get on. How many stops did the elevator make? Many people cannot give the right answer, because, instead of counting stops, they 'were counting the number of persons getting on and off at each stop.
Influence by Set
Here is a laboratory experiment which demonstrates the effect of set on perception. the exposure, the subjects of the experiment are asked to make a reproduction of what they have seen. When the subjects are told ahead of time that the exposed figure will be like a pair of eyeglasses, they perceive glasses, as indicated by reproductions such as those on the left. When other subjects are shown the same figure under the same conditions but are told to expect a dumbbell, they draw reproductions like that on the right.
Another experiment on set and perception was carried out by briefly exposing to groups of subjects a series of words, some in their normal printed form and some reversed. Without definite instructions as to what to expect, the subjects were slower to recognize the reversed words than those presented in their normal way. When, however, they were told beforehand that some of the words would be reversed, this induced set greatly increased their accuracy of perception.
Everyday living is full of examples of set as an important determinant of what one perceives. After hearing the words "ham and " you are se: to hear '·eggs." You are set to hear "beans" if you hear "pork and" first. And you will be likely to hear "beans" even if the word actually spoken is "greens." Some persons say that they cannot sleep because their hearts pound in their ears or because of the ticking of a bedside clock. Most of us are scarcely aware of this pounding an ticking. The insomniac, however, is looking for explanations for his sleeplessness and so is set for many types of stimulation which ar disregarded by most people. Everyone will hear the ticking clock anL beatir:g heart if he sets himself to listen for them. The doctor generally hears the telephone ring in the night, but not the baby's crying. His wife, however, will sleep through the ringing telephone but waken to the stirring and crying of the baby.
