An Ecological Approach to Mechanisms Determining Individual Differences in Perception

Abstract

In 1982 Satow proposed four hypothetical properties determining mechanisms of individual differences in perceptions; these were supported by results of a factor analysis of responses to a 58-item check list. Present work confirmed the four properties (intense sensitivity, temporal sensitivity, sensory-motor reactivity, and possible range of total stimuli), and obtained a property, preference for intense and prolonged stimuli, from a principal component analysis of data from a 60-item list given to 316 subjects. The 60-item list is a revised version of the 58-item list which asked subjects about their subjective sensitiveness and preferences for environmental sensory stimuli (visual, auditory, olfactory, and tactile). Within subjects relationships among these properties are interindependent, since for individuals correlations of factor-score estimates between pairs of these properties were near zero. This interindependence supported a model of four hypothetical types of individuals, explaining the individual differences on the grounds of the relations among the properties.