Scribd
Upload
34 views2 pages

Atkinson's Risk-Taking Model and Helson's Adaptation-Level Theory

Atkinson's Risk-Taking Model explores decision-making under risk, suggesting individuals with high achievement motivation prefer moderate challenges, while Helson's Adaptation-Level Theory examines how prior experiences affect perception of stimuli. An experiment is outlined to test these theories through dart-throwing and brightness rating tasks. Additionally, a study investigates how adaptation and expectancy influence emotional evaluations of images, predicting that prior exposure will affect ratings of neutral images based on the group's priming.

Uploaded by

Irsa
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
34 views2 pages

Atkinson's Risk-Taking Model and Helson's Adaptation-Level Theory

Atkinson's Risk-Taking Model explores decision-making under risk, suggesting individuals with high achievement motivation prefer moderate challenges, while Helson's Adaptation-Level Theory examines how prior experiences affect perception of stimuli. An experiment is outlined to test these theories through dart-throwing and brightness rating tasks. Additionally, a study investigates how adaptation and expectancy influence emotional evaluations of images, predicting that prior exposure will affect ratings of neutral images based on the group's priming.

Uploaded by

Irsa
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

Atkinson’s Risk-Taking Model and Helson’s Adaptation-Level

Theory

Atkinson’s Risk-Taking Model


This model examines how people make decisions involving varying levels of risk and reward.
Example Experiment:
• Task: Participants play a dart-throwing game where they can choose between three target
sizes:
1. Large target (easy but low reward).
2. Medium target (moderate difficulty and reward).
3. Small target (hard but high reward).
• Hypothesis: People high in achievement motivation will pick the medium target for an
optimal challenge.
• Unique Twist: Introduce a social element by showing participants a leaderboard to see if
competition influences risk-taking behavior.

Helson’s Adaptation-Level Theory


This theory explains how prior experiences shape perception of current stimuli.
Example Experiment:
• Task: Participants rate the brightness of a neutral gray card after exposure to:
1. A sequence of very bright lights.
2. A sequence of dim lights.
• Hypothesis: The neutral gray card will appear darker after bright light exposure and lighter
after dim light exposure.
• Unique Twist: Randomly alternate the brightness sequence to test how quickly adaptation
occurs.
The Role of Adaptation and Expectancy in Evaluating Emotional
Stimuli

Objective:
To investigate how prior experiences (adaptation) and expectations influence emotional
evaluations of stimuli, integrating Atkinson's Expectancy-Value Model and Helson's Adaptation-
Level Theory.

Design:
• Participants: Recruit 40 participants.
• Materials: A series of 20 images with varying emotional valence (positive, neutral,
negative).
• Procedure: Divide participants into two groups:
• Group A (Positive Priming): Shown 5 highly positive images first.
• Group B (Negative Priming): Shown 5 highly negative images first.
Both groups are then shown the same 10 neutral images followed by 5 moderately positive or
negative images.
Participants rate the emotional intensity of each image on a scale of 1-10.

Hypotheses:
➢ Adaptation-Level Effect (Helson):
Group A will rate the neutral images as less positive compared to Group B due to adaptation to
highly positive images.
Similarly, Group B will rate the neutral images as less negative compared to Group A.
➢ Expectancy Effect (Atkinson):
If participants are told to "expect" more positive or negative images in advance, their ratings will
align with their expectations, demonstrating expectancy’s influence on emotional evaluation.

Results Analysis (Adaptation-Level Effect - Helson):


• Compare the emotional intensity ratings for neutral images between Group A (positive
priming) and Group B (negative priming).
• It is expected that Group A will rate the neutral images as less positive (due to adaptation
to highly positive stimuli), while Group B will rate the neutral images as less negative (due
to adaptation to highly negative stimuli).

You might also like