Perception Research - CW1

Sensation – “the immediate response of our sensory receptors to such basic stimuli as light, colour and sound” (Solomon et al, 2006).

Here is a sensory receptor reacting to a stimulus, in thius case an eye to light.



Perception – “the process by which these stimuli are selected, organised and interpreted” (Solomon et al, 2006).

Here is a clip demonstrating how stimuli are filtered to allow for an interpretation of the situation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYECPiCIVdY

Simplified, sensation is the raw information, what we see, hear, taste, feel and smell. Perception is understanding, interpreting and assigning meaning to these sensations.

Perception Experiment – How Colour Effects the Perceived Value of a Bottle of Wine.

Hypothesis

The the colour of the label on a bottle of wine will affect the perceived quality of the bottle of wine.

Method

10 individuals were selected and were individually shown pictures of the labels from 4 bottles of wine, labelled simply A, B, C and D. Each bottle of wine had a different coloured label. The individuals were then asked to give each bottle of wine a score on how good a quality they felt the wine would be based on the colours used on the label. They scored the products from 1-10, 1 being very poor quality and 10 being very high quality. This is descriptive market research as it provides a better understanding of a particular issue (Brassington & Pettit, 2006).

It went something like this



Thankfully it didn't really.

Results

Wine D had the highest perceived quality, with a mean average rounded to the nearest whole number of 7. Wines B and C both received an average score of 4 whilst wine A scored an average of 6.

Experiment Conclusion

“The colour of the label on a bottle of wine will affect the perceived quality of the bottle of wine”. The results support the hypothesis as they show a difference in perceived quality for the various bottles of wine based upon the colour of the label.

This correlates with perception theory. The participants followed the perceptual process, they received the information by viewing the wine label, they paid attention to the colour, they interpreted the colour in relation to their schemas e.g. a black and gold label signifies quality, and they responded with their predictions. As the theory would suggest they formed their opinions on the perceived quality of the wine based upon their schemas. Some of the individuals schemas grouped wines with a black and gold label together and considered them all high quality wines, others did the same but their schemas suggested that green and cream coloured label wines are higher quality. It appeared that the perceived quality was definitely affected by the individuals personal factors, specifically age. The older participants thought the more traditional light pink coloured wine label belonged to a higher quality bottle of wine where as the younger participants favoured the more contemporary black and gold.

The results suggest that the visual stimuli of colour should be utilised in order to effectively advertise and market a product as it appears to have an affect on the perceptions of the individual. The choice of colour could influence a consumer to purchase an item, or indeed not and therefore it should be considered as part of an overall advertising package.

The experiment however had many pitfalls which prevent the results from having any real implications. The sample size was far too small, a considerably larger sample size would be needed in order to extrapolate the results to the wider population. The participants age should have been recorded and added to the results. The labels contained more than just the colour, despite being asked to evaluate the wine on the colour of the labels alone, the participants found it difficult to ignore such variables as the name of the wine, the style of the label and the imagery (if any) depicted. The information collected was quantifiable, however the ambiguous nature of the question, specifically the use of the term “quality” means the results are difficult to interpret. To one person quality simply means the price of the item, to another it means the taste and to another it means something different still. A description of what is meant by quality should have been given to the participants before they participated in the experiment.