PSYB10H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Robert Zajonc, Fishing Reel, Individuation
Document Summary
Group can be described as collection of individuals who have relations to one another that make them interdependent to some significant degree . Norman triplett credited with experimental examination of the effect of other people"s presence on human performance. He conducted what was considered as the first social psychology experiment. Gathered 40 children in his lab and had them turn a fishing reel as fast as they could, there were 6 trials each child would go through and conditions: child was alone vs. child was with other children. Triplett found that in the presence of other children the child would turn the reel faster. Social facilitation: initially a term for enhanced performance in the presence of others; now a broader term for the effect, positive or negative of the presence of others on performance. Robert zajonc proposed different theory; argued that the (mere) presence of others tends to facilitate performance on simple/well-learned tasks, but it hinders performance on difficult/novel tasks.
