Instructions and Debriefing

1. USE OF INCENTIVES IN VERBAL CONDITIONING

Instructions

- For Incentive Condition: “This is a simple experiment on learning. I will show you a list of six
pronouns. Your task is to make fifty sentences using these pronouns in any order. You will
have to say these sentences out loud. State the sentences clearly and slowly as will be
making a note of the same. Please pay attention to the feedback you receive from me. Have
you understood? Shall we begin?”

- For the Non-Incentive Condition: “This is a simple experiment on learning. I will show you a
list of six pronouns. Your task is to make fifty sentences using these pronouns in any order.
You will have to say these sentences out loud. State the sentences clearly and slowly as I will
be making a note of the same. Have you understood? Shall we begin?”

Debriefing

- The experimenter stated the title and hypothesis of the experiment. The concepts of
learning and verbal conditioning were explained with the help of examples. The participant
was then told about the two conditions – Incentive and Non – Incentive condition. The
participant was then shown the results and it was explained whether the data obtained was
in line with the hypothesis. The practical applications were discussed. The participant was
then thanked and escorted out of the lab.

2. ERRORS IN SYLLOGISTIC REASONING

Instructions

- This is a simple experiment of how people come to conclusions. I will share a document with
further instructions. Let's go over them. Below is a list of 12 syllogisms. Syllogism contains
statements that are given to be true. Your task is to read the statements and mark a
conclusion from the list of conclusions written on the right. Keep in mind that “some are” is
interpreted as at least one and possibly all are and “some are not” is interpreted as at least
one is not and possibly all are not.

Debriefing
 - Discuss the results

3. ANCHORING AND ADJUSTMENT HEURISTIC

Instructions

- This is a simple experiment. Your task is to pick up a chit from the pile given, read it and
place it in front of you. Then read the question presented to you. Please answer the question
as quickly as possible and in terms of percentage only. Put the chit back in the pile and pick
another chit before reading the next question presented. In addition to this you will have to
tell me whether you were aware of the answer or not for each question.

Debriefing

- The aim of the anchoring and adjustment experiment is to study how people's decisions are
influenced by the initial information they receive (the anchor) and how they adjust their
judgement based on it. People usually don't adjust their estimate far from that starting
point. This is called the anchoring-and-adjustment method, which was created P a ge | 72 by
Tversky and Kahneman in 1974. Initially, people set a number ("the anchor") and others
adjust it until they reach an acceptable number. To demonstrate the idea of anchoring and
adjustment, let's use the example of a used car seller. The salesperson will typically offer a
very high price to begin the discussions, which is unquestionably much higher than the car's
current market value. Now that the salesman's original price has become the anchor, the
consumer may end up paying a final price that is significantly more than the fair value. This is
because the auto salesman's higher quote became an anchor for the buyer. For this
experiment, there were two participants who were given two different conditions. The low
anchor condition was given to participant 1 who received chits ranging from 1 to 50 and the
high anchor condition was given to participant 2 who received chits ranging from 51 to 100.
It was expected that the number on the chit picked out by the participant would influence
his/her response. So, the higher anchor participant would give higher estimates than the low
anchor participant. Being aware of the anchoring effect can also help you avoid falling prey
to it by reminding yourself to question the initial information or numbers given to you.
Exploring about the product beforehand helps as well.
 4. CONTEXT EFFECT AND PREVIOUS EXPOSURE ON PATTERN
RECOGNITION

Instructions

- This is a simple experiment on Pattern Recognition. I will present to you a passage which
contains a story. You have to read this passage. You will be given only five minutes to read
the passage. After reading the passage, I will give you a list of scrambled/ jumbled words.
Scrambled words are words containing letters which are jumbled, that is, mixed up. Your
task is to unscramble those words, that is – organise the letters to make a meaningful word.
Have you understood? Do you have any questions?

Debriefing

- The purpose of the experiment was to study the effect of context and previous exposure on
Pattern Recognition. Context effect is that which provides you a clue as to what the information
is, and thus the meaning of the information is made more understandable. Without context,
information can be misinterpreted, and with context, information can be understood. For
example, when trying to read someone's handwriting, if a word happens to be illegible, you try
to read the whole sentence in order to see whether it provides you with a clue as to what that
word could be. This is known as context effect. In this experiment, The context was manipulated
at two levels – partly scrambled words (demonstrate) and fully scrambled words (demonstrate).
The partly scrambled words are shown to have context as the first and last letter of the word are
in the same place and are hence better recognised then fully scrambled words, which have no
context. In previous exposure, when one is familiar with material, one can easily identify with it
later. (Condition 1 and 2) You might have noticed that the scrambled words have already
appeared in the story, which might have been easier to recognise them, whereas in other
conditions, the scrambled words did not appear in the passage given. (Condition 3 and 4) You
might have noticed that scrambled words were not in the story, which made it difficult to
recognise the words where as in other conditions, the scrambled words were present in the
passage given and hence, reading the passage may/may not have provided you with clues to
identify words. For example, while studying for exams, when one studies a topic in advance and
comes back to it later after a while, the material is more familiar and is much more easily
remembered than a person who studies the material for the first time. In this experiment, the
 previous exposure was manipulated at two levels – one was a passage which contained all the
words on the list, and the other was a different passage which did not contain any of the words
on the list. Recognition of the words is supposed to be better when previous exposure is
present, rather than when it is absent. Do you have any further questions? Thank you for your
participation.

5. AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORY AND SEMANTIC MEMORY

Instructions

- “This is a simple experiment on the perception of words. I will be showing you some cards,
one card at a time over this screen. On each card there will be either a word or a picture and
it will be shown over the screen for a very brief period of time, before showing each card
you will be asked to do a task pertaining to the word or the picture on that card. Please
listen carefully, understand what you are asked to do, look at the card shown to you and
respond accordingly.” For example: “If the statement is: Please recollect an incident in your
life related to the word or picture, you have to recollect and write the sentence on this sheet
of paper within 30 seconds.” Then you will be showing demo cards with the word and
picture for this task to the participant. "If the statement is: Please form a statement using
word or picture shown on the card you have to frame the sentence and write it in given
sheet of paper within 30 seconds. I will give you ready signal before showing you each card.
Have you understood? Do you have any questions?" Recall. In this sheet of paper, you have
to write as many words and pictures you have just seen in the previous task, you can write
them in any order as you remember them, you will be given 5 minutes for this task. Write
them vertically one below the other. Please note that serial order of word or picture is not
important. Shall we begin? Recognition. On this sheet of paper, there are some names of
words and pictures are typed. Some names of words and pictures were there in previous
tasks plus some new names are added here, your task is to identify and tick those words and
pictures which were present in earlier tasks. Please place the tick mark on the left side of
word. You will be given 5 minutes to identify the words and pictures. Shall we begin?

Debriefing

- The purpose of the experiment was to study the effect of autobiographical memory and
semantic elaboration and the kind of material i.e. words and pictures on memory retrieval. It is
expected that autobiographical elaboration will have better recall and recognition performance
than the semantic level processing. (Explain the scores). This is because autobiographical
 memory is personally important memory representation. They define who we are, who we have
been and who we can become. Semantic memory, on the other hand, is a more structured
record of facts, meanings, concepts and knowledge about the external world that we have
required. Similarly, when picture form is represented, it leads to better recall and recognition
than the word forms of presentation (Explain the scores). According to Allan Paivio’s dual coding
theory which is based on picture superiority effect. He claimed that pictures have advantages
over words with regards to coding and retrieval of stored memory because pictures are coded
more easily and can be retrieved from symbolic mode, while the dual coding process using
words is more difficult for both encoding and retrieval. Picture stimuli have an advantage over
word stimuli because they are dually encoded; they generate a verbal and image code, whereas
word stimuli only generate a verbal code. Overall expected results are that scores for recognition
will be better than the recall scores. This is because in recall, one has to bring back to mind a
word that was shown before. It is a little more difficult than merely identifying from lists of
words that were shown before in the experiment. In recognition, there is only one process- a
decision about whether the words were seen earlier, whereas recall involves a search for words
that were seen before and decision about whether the item was really presented previously. The
practical implication for studying is when you learn new material. He/she was told when relating
the events happening around the individual and remembering it while studying a particular
concept. It will help the individual in remembering the material during the exam. All the
questions of the participant were answered, and s/he was requested not to tell others about the
experiment explaining why it was important; and having been ‘informed’ other participant might
behave in a way that might seriously bias the results of other experimenters. The participant was
thanked for participating and escorted to the door.

6. PERCEPTION - FEATURE ANALYSIS IN VISUAL SEARCH TASK

Instructions

- This is a simple experiment about locating letters and numbers. I will show you some cards,
one card at a time. Each card will have letters and numbers on it. Before showing you a card,
I will give you a ready signal and then only I will show the card. After showing you the cards, I
will ask you to locate a specific letter or number on it. Your task is to point out where the
target letter or number is. Please respond to it as quickly and accurately as you can. We will
now do a few demo trials. Do you have any questions? Are you ready?

Debriefing
 - This experiment was on perception. It is studied through visual search task. This experiment
was originally conducted by Ulric Neisser in 1963. The aim of this experiment was to study if
you will take more time to search the target from a congruent background i.e. when you’re
asked to search any letter from different letters that are shown to you or you are asked to
search a number from various series of numbers, as compared to when you’re asked to
search target from incongruent background i.e. asking you to search a letter from a series of
numbers or vice versa. In your case, we found that you took ___ secs for the Letters from
Letters task, ___ secs for Numbers from Numbers task, __ secs for Letters from Numbers
task and ___ secs for Numbers from Letters task. It can be seen that you took more time in
___ task and less time in ___ task (There is a possibility that P took more time on both tasks
then mention both the tasks.) Further, you made __ no. of errors in the Letters from Letters
task, ___ errors for Numbers from Numbers task, __ errors for Letters from Numbers task
and ___ errors for Numbers from Letters task. It can be seen that you made more errors in
___ task and less errors in ___ task. Talking about practical application in everyday life, this
would help explain why we pay attention to certain acoustic features of speech that make a
meaningful difference in our language but ignore others. For instance, we understand the
speech of a stranger who speaks our language quickly and effortlessly while ignoring
differences in their pitch or accent i.e. features of speech which are unimportant. Feature
analysis also helps explain how speed reading works, because while reading fast, we tend to
notice only the features of the letters and form the word instead of carefully reading each
and every letter to construct the word.

7. EMOTIONAL STROOP EXPERIMENT

Instructions

- “This is a simple experiment on naming colours. You will be presented with three tasks for
which you will be given instructions. Instructions for all three tasks are the same. You will be
presented with a series of colours in the context of letters and words. Your task is to name
only the colour in which the words have been written as quickly and as accurately as you
can. Begin from the first word and proceed vertically down. Be careful to move from one
column to the next column without skipping any column. However, do not use your fingers
to point out the words, do not squint, nod or tap your hand or foot while naming colours. Do
not name the colours in a sing song manner that is (demonstrate). Have you understood?
Shall we begin?”
Debriefing

- The purpose and hypothesis of the experiment were also explained, after which the
participant was told about the two conditions – Pleasant word units and Unpleasant word
units. The participant was then presented with the results, and it was explained that the
data obtained was __. Appropriate theoretical explanations were also provided along with a
discussion surrounding the practical applications of the concept. The participant was
subsequently thanked and escorted out.

8. MENTAL SET AND PROBLEM-SOLVING

Instructions

- "This is a simple experiment on problem solving. You will be presented with a few problems,
one problem at a time. Your task is to solve each problem within one minute. I will give you
a practice problem first." Demonstration. "Here there are 3 jars of water, Jar A, Jar B, Jar C,
with each jar having a different capacity of water. For example, jar A has capacity to hold 29
litres of water. Jar B has the capacity to hold 48 litres of water and jar C has the capacity to
hold 3 litres of water. With the help of these jars, your task is to arrive at a required quantity
of water i.e., 13 litres. You will be given 1 minute to solve the problem." (Allow them to solve
the demo problem and explain the solution after they solve the problem or could not solve
the problem). P a ge | 268 "This problem can be solved by filling jar B first, then filling jar A
from jar B. Then fill jar C from remaining water of jar B. What you filled in jar C will be
thrown away and fill it again from jar B. If we see the mathematical formula, we can write it
as B-A-2C." (Ask them to explain back). "Now you will be given similar problems, one at a
time and you will be given one minute to solve each problem. Please write the solution you
arrive at on the rough sheet of paper given to you or you can say it aloud. Tell me 'Done' as
soon as you are done solving the problem so that I could stop the timer, then I will ask you
the formula which you can read aloud. Have you understood? Do you have any questions?
Shall we begin?"

Debriefing
 - The experiment was about mental sets, in problem solving. Mental set hinders us from
reaching the solution to the problem. According to our mental set, we are likely to use the
same solution for solving later problems which we have used to solve previous problems,
although simpler and more effective solutions may be available. In this experiment, we have
2 participants (show them the record sheet). One participant is exposed to inducement of
the mental set whereas the other participant is not exposed to such inducement. It was
assumed that the participant who is exposed to inducement will take a longer time and
make more errors while solving the problem (explain the results and how EP will use a
longer formula although easier solutions are available). These findings can also be applied in
daily life where although a shortcut is available for reaching the destination, we maintain our
regular route which may be longer and take more time.

9. WORD RECOGNITION IN PERCEPTUAL DEFENCE

Instructions

- This is a simple experiment in which I will be showing you a number of cards. Each card will
have a single word on it. Your task is to look at the word very carefully and say the word out
loud after the card is shown to you. Please pay attention to the cards as they will be exposed
for a brief period of time. Have you understood? Shall we begin?

Debriefing

- The experimenter stated the title and hypothesis of the experiment. The concept of
perceptual defense was explained with the help of examples. The participant was then told
about the three conditions – Taboo Words, Rare Neutral Words and Frequent Neutral
Words. The participant was then told that their results will be communicated to them later
after they are calculated by the experimenter. The practical applications were discussed.

10. FACE RECOGNITION

Instructions

- Instructions for the study phase "This is a simple experiment. I will now show you a series of
photographs. Each photo will be exposed to you only once and for a brief period of time.
Your task is to look at each photo carefully."
- Instructions for distractor task "You will be presented with a set of maths questions. Please
solve them as quickly and accurately as possible. You will be given 5 minutes for this task."
 - Instructions for recognition task "You will be shown a series of photographs again. Some of
them are old photos while some are new. You have to look at each photo carefully and
decide whether or not it was shown to you in the earlier phase of the experiment."

Debriefing

- The experimenter stated the title and hypothesis of the experiment. The concept of
perceptual defense was explained with the help of examples. The participant was then told
about the three conditions – Taboo Words, Rare Neutral Words and Frequent Neutral
Words. The participant was then told that their results will be communicated to them later
after they are calculated by the experimenter. The practical applications were discussed.
 Hypothesis

1. USE OF INCENTIVES IN VERBAL CONDITIONING

- The use of incentives will lead to an increased use of the target pronoun "they." That is, the
number of statements made with the target pronoun "they" will be greater in the incentive
condition than the non-incentive condition.

2. ERRORS IN SYLLOGISTIC REASONING

- 1. There will be more error in abstract syllogism than compared to concrete syllogism.

- 2. There will be more errors in syllogisms with a particular major premise than in those when
the universal major premise.

3. ANCHORING AND ADJUSTMENT HEURISTIC

- 1. The higher the anchor, the higher the estimates of the participants will be.

- 2. Anchoring will have an effect on decision making (responses) of the participant.

4. CONTEXT EFFECT AND PREVIOUS EXPOSURE ON PATTERN

RECOGNITION

- 1. Recognition of words is higher with context as compared to Recognition of words Without

Context.

- 2. Recognition is higher With Previous Exposure as compared to Without Previous Exposure.

- 3. Recognition of words in Condition 1 (With Previous Exposure and With Context) is highest,
whereas Recognition of words in Condition 4 (Without Previous Exposure and Without
Context) is the lowest/ poorest.

5. AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORY AND SEMANTIC MEMORY

- 1. There is a difference between memory performance as a function of type of processing

(Autobiographical elaboration and semantic level of processing).
- 2. Autobiographical elaboration leads to better recall performance than semantic level of
processing. Autobiographical elaboration leads to better recognition scores than the
semantic level of processing.

- 3. Picture form of presentation leads to better recall than the word form of presentation.

- 4. Picture form of presentation leads to better recognition than the word form of
presentation.

- 5. Recognition scores will be better than the recall scores.

6. PERCEPTION - FEATURE ANALYSIS IN VISUAL SEARCH TASK

- 1. Reaction time will be greater when target and background stimuli are congruent as
compared to incongruent.

- 2. There will be no difference in reaction time for finding a letter as compared to finding a
number.

- 3. The reaction time for identifying a letter with a congruent background will be higher as
compared to identifying a number with an incongruent background.

7. EMOTIONAL STROOP EXPERIMENT

- 1. Unpleasant word unit conditions will produce greater interference with colour naming
than pleasant word conditions.

- 2. Unpleasant word units will produce more errors with colour naming than pleasant word
units.

8. MENTAL SET AND PROBLEM-SOLVING

- 1. The number of correct responses given by control participant (CP) will be higher as
compared to correct responses by experimental participant (EP).

- 2. The mean time taken by the experimental participant (EP) will be higher as compared to
the mean time taken by the control participant (CP).

9. WORD RECOGNITION IN PERCEPTUAL DEFENCE

- Taboo word condition will result in the worst performance i.e taboo words will have a higher
reaction time as compared to rare neutral and frequent neutral words.

10. FACE RECOGNITION

- 1. Recognition memory will be better for emotional faces (angry and fearful) compared to
neutral faces.
- 2. There will be no difference in recognition memory for fearful and angry faces.
- 3. Recognition will be better for in-group (Indians) as compared to out-group (other races)
faces.
- 4. Fearful in-group faces will be better recognized compared to angry in-group faces.
- 5. Angry out-group faces will be better recognized as compared to fearful out-group faces.

Theories

1. USE OF INCENTIVES IN VERBAL CONDITIONING

- 1. The Classical Conditioning Theory Classical conditioning is a learning process in which a

neutral stimulus becomes associated with a stimulus that naturally triggers a response. Over
time, through repeated pairings, the neutral stimulus begins to produce the same response
as the naturally occurring stimulus. The key components of classical conditioning include the
unconditioned stimulus (UCS), which automatically elicits an unconditioned response (UCR),
and the neutral stimulus (NS), which initially does not cause any response. After repeated
pairings with the UCS, the neutral stimulus transforms into a conditioned stimulus (CS) and
elicits a conditioned response (CR). This process explains how behavior can be influenced by
environmental stimuli and contributes to understanding learning mechanisms (Eelen, 2018).

- 2. Operant conditioning Theory Operant conditioning, developed by B.F. Skinner is a learning

process where behavior is modified through reinforcement and punishment. Reinforcement
strengthens behavior by either adding a pleasant stimulus (positive reinforcement) or
removing an unpleasant one (negative reinforcement). Conversely, punishment decreases
behavior by either introducing an unpleasant stimulus (positive punishment) or taking away
a pleasant stimulus (negative punishment).

2. ERRORS IN SYLLOGISTIC REASONING

- According to Aristotle: "A syllogism is a form of reasoning in which a conclusion is drawn
from two premises, one of which is called the major premise and the other the minor
premise." According to Immanuel Kant: "A syllogism is a form of argument in which a
universal proposition is applied to a particular case, and a conclusion is drawn therefrom."
According to Lewis: "A syllogism is a deductive argument in which a conclusion is drawn
 from two or more premises, by means of a logical process of inference.” A syllogism is a
form of reasoning that involves drawing a conclusion from two premises, one of which is
considered the major premise and the other the minor premise. This structured approach to
argumentation emphasizes the importance of logical validity and the formal components of
reasoning. However, a syllogism can also be understood as a process of applying universal
principles to particular cases, resulting in a conclusion that follows necessarily from the
premises. Ultimately, a syllogism is a deductive argument that relies on a logical process of
inference to derive a conclusion from two or more premises, highlighting the interplay
between general principles and specific instances. A syllogism is a way of reasoning that
helps us arrive at a logical conclusion based on two or more statements.

3. ANCHORING AND ADJUSTMENT HEURISTIC

- The Utility Theory of Decision Making is a prominent approach to understanding how

individuals make choices among different options. According to this theory, individuals make
decisions based on the expected utility, or the perceived value or satisfaction that they
expect to derive from each option. The concept of utility refers to the subjective value that
individuals place on different outcomes or consequences. Utility theory proposes that
individuals will choose the option that maximizes their expected utility, or the expected
value of the outcome multiplied by the probability of that outcome occurring. The utility
theory of decision making has been widely applied in fields such as economics, psychology,
and neuroscience. However, critics have pointed out that the theory may not fully capture
the complexity of human decision making, as it assumes that individuals always act rationally
and make choices based solely on expected utility. In reality, decision making is often
influenced by a wide range of factors, including emotions, biases, and social context.

4. CONTEXT EFFECT AND PREVIOUS EXPOSURE ON PATTERN

RECOGNITION

- One of the foundational theories explaining context effects in memory is the Encoding
Specificity Principle, proposed by Tulving and Thomson (1973). This principle suggests that
memory retrieval is most effective when the context at the time of encoding closely matches
the context at retrieval. Essentially, cues present during learning become encoded alongside
the memory, making it easier to access when similar cues are available later. This principle
has been supported by numerous studies, such as research on context-dependent memory,
where participants recall information better when tested in the same environment where
they learned it. For example, Godden and Baddeley (1975) demonstrated that divers who
 learned words underwater recalled them more accurately when tested underwater than
when tested on land, emphasizing how external environmental cues influence memory
retrieval.

- The Schema Theory, developed by Bartlett (1932), explains how prior knowledge and
expectations shape the way new information is processed and remembered. Schemas are
cognitive frameworks that help individuals organize and interpret information based on past
experiences. According to this theory, context plays a crucial role in memory reconstruction
because people use their pre-existing schemas to fill in gaps when recalling events. Bartlett’s
famous "War of the Ghosts" experiment demonstrated how participants altered details of a
story to fit their own cultural expectations, illustrating that memory is not a perfect record
but a reconstruction influenced by context.

5. AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORY AND SEMANTIC MEMORY

- Greek philosopher Plato wrote about memory, comparing it both to an aviary and to a wax
tablet on which impressions are made. Throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance, other
analogies were made between memory and a cave, an empty cabinet, and a body in need of
exercise. In the 1950s, memory was compared to a telephone system, and later it was
compared to a computer. One theoretical approach to studying memory, which dominated
cognitive psychology throughout the 1960s and 1970s, distinguished among kinds of
memory according to the length of time information is stored. The multi-store model of
memory (also known as the modal model) was proposed by Richard Atkinson and Richard
Shiffrin (1968) and is a structural model. They proposed that memory consisted of three
stores: a sensory register (sensory memory), short-term memory (STM) and long-term
memory (LTM).

6. PERCEPTION - FEATURE ANALYSIS IN VISUAL SEARCH TASK

- One of the most influential theories in feature analysis is the Feature Integration Theory
(FIT), proposed by Treisman and Gelade (1980). According to this theory, perception occurs
in two stages: an initial preattentive stage, where basic features are detected automatically
across the visual field, and a focused attention stage, where attention is required to
integrate multiple features into a coherent whole. The preattentive stage operates in
parallel, allowing certain stimuli to "pop out" effortlessly, such as a red object among blue
ones. However, when multiple features must be combined—such as identifying a red "T"
among red "L"s and blue "T"s—focused attention is necessary, making the search slower and
 more effortful. This theory helps explain why certain objects are easily detected while others
require deliberate scanning.

7. EMOTIONAL STROOP EXPERIMENT

- Cocktail Party Theory The "cocktail party effect" refers to the brain’s remarkable ability to
selectively focus on a specific auditory stream, such as a single conversation, amidst a noisy
environment with multiple competing inputs. Coined by Colin E. Cherry in 1953, this
phenomenon highlights how the brain efficiently filters out irrelevant auditory stimuli,
allowing individuals to concentrate on particular sounds or voices even when surrounded by
a cacophony of background noise. For instance, at a crowded party, we can engage in one
conversation while tuning out others, demonstrating the brain's ability to prioritize specific
auditory information in a complex auditory landscape. The cocktail party effect is a prime
example of selective attention, a cognitive process that enables us to filter out competing
stimuli while focusing on what is relevant. This process involves perceptual processing,
where the brain distinguishes between different sound sources, allowing us to identify and
concentrate on a single conversation despite the presence of multiple voices. The brain
constantly analyzes various auditory cues, deciding which to attend to based on factors like
personal relevance, familiarity, or urgency. This ability to selectively focus on one stream of
information amidst competing auditory inputs illustrates the brain’s sophistication in
managing attention.

8. MENTAL SET AND PROBLEM-SOLVING

- The Luchins water jar experiment investigates the phenomenon of "Einstellung," which is
the tendency to apply a previously successful method to new problems, even when more
efficient solutions exist. This experiment uses a series of water-jar problems to demonstrate
how easily individuals can become "blind" to alternative, more direct solutions due to
habituation. Participants are given three jars of different capacities (A, B, and C) and are
tasked with obtaining a specific amount of water. The initial problems (E1-E5) are designed
to be solved using a somewhat complex B-A-2C method, which involves filling jar B, then
pouring out into jar A once and jar C twice. This establishes a mental set for this method.
Following these problems are critical problems (C1, C2, etc.), which can be solved more
simply using a different approach. The core finding of the experiment is that, after
repeatedly using the B-A-2C method for the E problems, most participants continue using it
for the critical problems, despite the availability of simpler methods like A-C or A+C. This is
the Einstellung effect: a mechanized state of mind that prevents the individual from
 considering other solutions. Participants often express surprise at their own "blindness"
when the simpler solutions are revealed. To combat this, some participants are given a
"Don't be blind" (DBB) instruction after the sixth problem as a warning, urging them to be
more cautious. However, the effectiveness of this warning varied. The DBB instruction did
not always result in increased use of the direct method. P a ge | 263 The experiment has
significant implications for education, where an emphasis on speed, routine, and repetitive
problem-solving might reinforce the Einstellung effect. The study suggests that teaching
should foster more flexible and creative thinking by making students aware that problems
can be solved in different ways. The goal of education should be to encourage mindful
problem-solving, where students examine each problem on its own merits and are open to
exploring various solution methods (Luchins, 1942).

9. WORD RECOGNITION IN PERCEPTUAL DEFENCE

- Template matching in cognitive psychology is a theory that explains how we recognize
patterns and objects by comparing them to stored mental templates. According to this
theory, our brain has a set of pre-existing templates for familiar shapes, such as letters,
numbers, or objects. When we see something, our brain tries to find the closest match
among these templates. If the input matches a stored template, we recognize it as that
object. This process is similar to how fingerprint or facial recognition software works, where
a new image is compared with stored patterns. However, a major limitation of traditional
template matching is that it struggles with variations in size, position, or orientation. For
example, if you see a handwritten letter "A" that looks slightly different from a standard
printed "A," simple template matching may fail. To address this, modern cognitive models
combine template matching with other methods, such as feature analysis, which breaks
objects into smaller components for recognition. Research has shown that mental images
can act as flexible templates that allow for transformations, helping us recognize objects
despite changes in appearance. Although template matching is an essential part of visual
recognition, it is not sufficient on its own for complex real-world perception, which often
involves additional cognitive processes like context analysis and feature extraction (Larsen,
A., & Bundesen, 1996) The template-matching pandemonium is an advanced model of visual
pattern recognition that combines template matching with feature analysis to improve
recognition accuracy. According to the research by Larsen and Bundesen (1996), traditional
template matching alone is insufficient for recognizing complex and unconstrained patterns,
such as handwritten digits, because it does not account for variations in size, orientation,
and spatial position. To address this limitation, the pandemonium model introduces multiple
 "demons" or analyzers, each responsible for matching the input pattern with stored
templates and providing weighted evidence for classification. The model operates in a
hierarchical structure: feature demons detect similarities between the input and stored
templates, cognitive demons integrate these matches into meaningful categories, and a
decision demon selects the category with the highest activation. This approach allows for
more flexible and reliable recognition because it considers multiple templates rather than
relying on a single best match. The researchers demonstrated that their model could achieve
a recognition rate of 95.3%, which is only slightly below human performance. By
strengthening the role of useful templates and weakening less relevant ones, P a ge | 288
the system adapts to new inputs, improving its classification accuracy. This hybrid approach
of template matching with feature analysis suggests that human visual recognition may rely
on a similar mechanism, where mental representations function as templates but also
integrate contextual and structural cues to improve identification (Larsen, A., & Bundesen,
1996)

10. FACE RECOGNITION

- Feature Analysis Theory Feature Analysis Theory is a cognitive theory that explains how
humans recognize and identify objects by analyzing their distinct features rather than
perceiving them as whole entities. This theory posits that the process of visual perception
involves breaking down an object into its fundamental features and then integrating these
features to form a complete understanding of the object. The theory was primarily
developed in the context of understanding how humans recognize letters and objects, and it
plays a significant role in cognitive psychology and visual perception research. It posits that
the human visual system recognizes objects by decomposing them into their constituent
features, thereby reducing the complexity of visual information processing. This approach
allows for efficient identification and categorization of objects within a vast array of possible
visual stimuli. (Morgan, n.d).