Four Properties Common among Perceptions Confirmed by a Large Sample of Subjects: An Ecological Approach to Mechanisms of Individual Differences in Perception: II

Abstract

The four properties which correspond to mechanisms determining individual differences in perception were proposed hypothetically and confirmed by responses to a 60-item check list for 214 women and also for 530 men and women. Properties were intense sensitivity, temporal sensitivity, possible range of total stimuli (the total stimulation in a perception is given a product of intensity and duration of the stimulus for the perception), and sensory-motor reactivity. These were the same as those for 316 men subjects in prior work. The three properties, intense sensitivity, temporal sensitivity, and possible range of stimulation, were obtained from two groups of items which related culture-free and culture-bound behavior. So the mechanisms determining individual differences regulate the two kinds of perceptual behaviors. All correlation coefficients of factor-score estimates between the two properties were near zero. The properties were independent of each other within subjects. This independence among the properties supported Satow's model of four types of individuals, explaining the individual differences on the grounds of the relations among the properties. Analysis suggested no sex difference in the mechanisms determining individual differences in perceptions. Another property, preference for weak stimuli, related to values of lower limits of the possible range of total stimulation.