Final answer:
Motivational states affect perception through signal detection theory, influencing our discrimination of stimuli based on their relevance and motivational importance. Drive theory articulates how physiological needs create psychological drives that influence both our perceptions and responses, with the potential to impact future behaviors via habit formation.
Step-by-step explanation:
Motivational states can significantly influence an individual's perception. According to signal detection theory, our motivation to detect a meaningful stimulus can shift our ability to discriminate between a true sensory stimulus and background noise. This theory explains situations like a mother waking to her baby's murmur but not other sounds or an air traffic controller's heightened sensitivity to plane blips on the radar.
The drive theory of motivation suggests that deviations from homeostasis create physiological needs leading to psychological drive states that direct behavior to restore balance. For instance, hunger drives us to seek food, which restores our blood sugar levels to normal. This theory affirms that habits develop from behaviors that successfully reduce a drive, influencing future responses to similar situations.
Perception is not just a passive process but is actively shaped by our motives, emotions, and expectations. The anticipation of an extrinsic motivation, such as a reward, can also alter an individual's intrinsic motivation, potentially reducing it if the reward is expected. Conversely, unexpected extrinsic rewards can maintain or even enhance intrinsic motivation.