Showing papers in "Journal of Experimental Psychology: General in 2002"
TL;DR: Working memory capacity is limited both by the independent capacity of simple feature stores and by demands on attention networks that integrate this distributed information into complex but unified thought objects.
Abstract: The integration of complex information in working memory, and its effect on capacity, shape the limits of conscious cognition. The literature conflicts on whether short-term visual memory represents information as integrated objects. A change-detection paradigm using objects defined by color with location or shape was used to investigate binding in short-term visual memory. Results showed that features from the same dimension compete for capacity, whereas features from different dimensions can be stored in parallel. Binding between these features can occur, but focused attention is required to create and maintain the binding over time, and this integrated format is vulnerable to interference. In the proposed model, working memory capacity is limited both by the independent capacity of simple feature stores and by demands on attention networks that integrate this distributed information into complex but unified thought objects.
877 citations
TL;DR: Two predictions that follow from Gentner and Namy's (1999) model of comparison facilitates categorization only when the targets to be compared share relational commonalities are tested: providing common labels for targets invites comparison, whereas providing conflicting labels deters it.
Abstract: Comparison mechanisms have been implicated in the development of abstract, relational thought, including object categorization. D. Gentner and L. L. Namy (1999) found that comparing 2 perceptually similar category members yielded taxonomic categorization, whereas viewing a single member of the target category elicited shallower perceptual responding. The present experiments tested 2 predictions that follow from Gentner and Namy's (1999) model: (a) Comparison facilitates categorization only when the targets to be compared share relational commonalities, and (b) providing common labels for targets invites comparison, whereas providing conflicting labels deters it. Four-year-olds participated in a forced-choice task. They viewed 2 perceptually similar target objects and were asked to "find another one." Results suggest an important role for comparison in lexical and conceptual development.
319 citations
TL;DR: The authors assess the construct space for WM and g and demonstrate that WM shares substantial variance with perceptual speed (PS) constructs and construct overlap between PS and WM is investigated.
Abstract: It has become fashionable to equate constructs of working memory (WM) and general intelligence (g). Few investigations have provided direct evidence that WM and g measures yield similar ordering of individuals. Correlational investigations have yielded mixed results. The authors assess the construct space for WM and g and demonstrate that WM shares substantial variance with perceptual speed (PS) constructs. Thirty-six ability tests representing verbal, numerical, spatial, and PS abilities; the Raven Advanced Progressive Matrices; and 7 WM tests were administered to 135 adults. A nomological representation for WM is provided through a series of cognitive and PS ability models. Construct overlap between PS and WM is further investigated with attention to complexity, processing differences, and practice effects.
312 citations
TL;DR: The underconfidence-with-practice (UWP) effect was very robust across several experimental manipulations, such as feedback or no feedback regarding the correctness of the answer, self-paced versus fixed-rate presentation, different incentives for correct performance, magnitude and direction of associative relationships, and conditions producing different degrees of knowing.
Abstract: When participants studied a list of paired associates for several study-test cycles, their judgments of learning (JOLs) exhibited relatively good calibration on the 1st cycle, with a slight overconfidence. However, a shift toward marked underconfidence occurred from the 2nd cycle on. This underconfidence-with-practice (UWP) effect was very robust across several experimental manipulations, such as feedback or no feedback regarding the correctness of the answer, self-paced versus fixed-rate presentation, different incentives for correct performance, magnitude and direction of associative relationships, and conditions producing different degrees of knowing. It was also observed both in item-by-item JOLs and in aggregate JOLs. The UWP effect also occurred for list learning and for the memory of action events. Several theoretical explanations for this counterintuitive effect are discussed.
256 citations
TL;DR: Five experiments investigated whether people allocate their study time according to the discrepancy reduction model or to items in their own region of proximal learning, and found that experts devoted their time to items that were more difficult than did novices.
Abstract: Five experiments investigated whether people allocate their study time according to the discrepancy reduction model (i.e., to the most difficult items; J. Dunlosky & C. Hertzog, 1998) or to items in their own region of proximal learning. Consistent with the latter hypothesis, as more time was given, people shifted toward studying more difficult items. Experts, whether college students or Grade 6 children, devoted their time to items that were more difficult than did novices. However, in a multiple-trials experiment, people regressed toward easier items on Trial 2 rather than shifting to more difficult items, perhaps because Trial 1 feedback revealed poor learning of the easiest items. These findings are in opposition to the discrepancy reduction model and support the region of proximal learning hypothesis.
241 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated temporal changes in the influence of probability and payoffs on gambling and found that temporal distance increased the influence and decreased the influence on preferences of more distant gambles.
Abstract: Four experiments investigated temporal changes in the influence of probability and payoffs on gambling. Using urn draws, the authors found in Experiment I that temporal distance increased the influence of payoffs and decreased the influence of probability on preferences. The authors found in Experiment 2 that in choosing among the more distant gambles, participants offered more reasons dealing with payoffs and fewer reasons dealing with probability. In Experiments 3 and 4, the authors extended the scope of these findings using a card game and a raffle. The results were interpreted in terms of a temporal construal process that highlights the desirability of outcomes in the distant future and the feasibility of attaining the outcomes in the near future.
226 citations
TL;DR: Clinicians are cognitively driven to use theories despite decades of practice with the atheoretical DSM, and they are more likely to diagnose a hypothetical patient with a disorder if that patient had causally central rather than causally peripheral symptoms.
Abstract: The theory-based model of categorization posits that concepts are represented as theories, not feature lists. Thus, it is interesting that the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) established atheoretical guidelines for mental disorder diagnosis. Five experiments investigated how clinicians handled an atheoretical nosology. Clinicians' causal theories of disorders and their responses on diagnostic and memory tasks were measured. Participants were more likely to diagnose a hypothetical patient with a disorder if that patient had causally central rather than causally peripheral symptoms according to their theory of the disorder. Their memory for causally central symptoms was also biased. Clinicians are cognitively driven to use theories despite decades of practice with the atheoretical DSM.
204 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, seven experiments assessed the hypothesis derived from terror management theory that reminding people of their mortality would increase accessibility of constructs central to their worldview, and the roles of situational cues and individual differences in the effects of exposure to death-related stimuli on worldview relevant construct accessibility were discussed.
Abstract: Seven experiments assessed the hypothesis derived from terror management theory that reminding people of their mortality would increase accessibility of constructs central to their worldview. Experiment 1 found that mortality primes, relative to control primes, increased accessibility of nationalistic constructs for men but not for women. Experiment 2 replicated this finding and also found that mortality salience increased romantic accessibility for women but not for men. Four subsequent experiments supported the role of unconscious death-related ideation in producing these effects. A final experiment demonstrated that situational primes can increase the accessibility of nationalistic constructs for women after mortality salience. The roles of situational cues and individual differences in the effects of exposure to death-related stimuli on worldview-relevant construct accessibility are discussed.
196 citations
TL;DR: Evidence is provided that supports the possibility of learned categorical perception (CP) and the data are consistent with the possibility that language may shape color perception and suggest a plausible mechanism for the linguistic relativity hypothesis.
Abstract: Color perception can be categorical: Between-category discriminations are more accurate than equivalent within-category discriminations. The effects could be inherited, learned, or both. The authors provide evidence that supports the possibility of learned categorical perception (CP). Experiment 1 demonstrated that observers' color discrimination is flexible and improves through repeated practice. Experiment 2 demonstrated that category learning simulates effects of "natural" color categories on color discrimination. Experiment 3 investigated the time course of acquired CP. Experiment 4 found that CP effects are acquired through hue- and lightness-based category learning and obtained interesting data on the dimensional perception of color. The data are consistent with the possibility that language may shape color perception and suggest a plausible mechanism for the linguistic relativity hypothesis.
176 citations
TL;DR: Results suggest that the response of the so-called word-form area is not based on perceptual familiarity but rather on some more abstract feature such as orthographic regularity.
Abstract: Previous studies have found an area in left ventral visual cortex that responds more to words and pseudowords than to consonant strings. Does this area respond to the perceptual form of wordlike stimuli, or is it responding to some more abstract, linguistic property, such as orthographic regularity (i.e., conformity with the spelling rules of the language)? During a functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment, participants read alternating-case words and pseudowords, which are orthographically regular but are perceptually unfamiliar. These stimuli activated the same area that was activated by pure-case words and pseudowords. These results suggest that the response of the so-called word-form area is not based on perceptual familiarity but rather on some more abstract feature such as orthographic regularity.
158 citations
TL;DR: In Stroop color naming, color targets were accompanied by a color word or a color words plus a neutral word that reduces or "dilutes" the Stroop effect, but a word need not be the focus of visual attention to be recognized.
Abstract: In Stroop color naming, color targets were accompanied by a color word or a color word plus a neutral word that reduces or "dilutes" the Stroop effect. Abrupt-onset cues called the focus of attention to one stimulus or another. Cuing influenced the size of the Stroop effect but never eliminated it. Unlike the Stroop effect itself, Stroop dilution from the neutral word could be eliminated, by cuing the color word. Focusing visual attention on the color word protected it from Stroop dilution; focusing visual attention on the neutral word did not prevent Stroop interference. Thus, spatial attention is a modulator, protecting visual data from crosstalk, but a word need not be the focus of visual attention to be recognized.
TL;DR: In the negative compatibility effect (NCE) as discussed by the authors, a masked prime arrow, pointing left or right, is followed by an unmasked (visible) target arrow, and the task is to press the switch corresponding to the visible arrow.
Abstract: In the negative compatibility effect (NCE) a masked prime arrow, pointing left or right, is followed by an unmasked (visible) target arrow. The task is to press the left or right switch corresponding to the visible arrow. Surprisingly, reaction time is longer (slowed) when the prime and target indicate the same, rather than different, responses. By contrast, the effect of an unmasked prime is positive-opposite to the NCE. This indicates that the NCE is not attributable to incomplete masking; to the extent that the prime is visible, the NCE would be reduced by this positive influence. Thus, the NCE appears to result from unconscious processing of the prime and, in that sense, may be a form of subliminal perception. Additional findings show that the NCE is due to inhibition of a response code, that it is automatic in that it occurs even if the information in the prime and target could be ignored, and that it also influences response selection.
TL;DR: This paper used connectionist networks to identify the differences between languages that affect grammatical gender and categorization in a set of monolingual English-, Spanish-, French-, and German-speaking children and adults.
Abstract: The focus of this work was on the relation between grammatical gender and categorization. In one set of studies, monolingual English-, Spanish-, French-, and German-speaking children and adults assigned male and female voices to inanimate objects. Results from Spanish and French speakers indicated effects of grammatical gender on classification; results from German speakers did not. A connectionist model simulated the contradicting findings. The connectionist networks were also used to investigate which aspect of grammatical gender was responsible for the different pattern of findings. The predictions from the connectionist simulations were supported by the results from an artificial language-learning task. The results from this work demonstrate how connectionist networks can be used to identify the differences between languages that affect categorization.
TL;DR: The results suggest that forgetting can increase or decrease false memories, depending on whether such forgetting reflects impaired access to an entire episode or retrieval competition among elements of an episode.
Abstract: In 2 experiments, we examined the interplay of 2 types of memory errors: forgetting and false memory— errors of omission and commission, respectively. We examined the effects of 2 manipulations known to inhibit retrieval of studied words— directed forgetting and part-list cuing— on the false recall of an unstudied “critical” word following study of its 15 strongest associates. Participants cued to forget the 1st of 2 studied lists before studying the 2nd recalled fewer List 1 words but intruded the missing critical word more often than did participants cued to remember both lists. By contrast, providing some studied words as cues during recall reduced both recall of the remaining studied words and intrusions of the critical word. The results suggest that forgetting can increase or decrease false memories, depending on whether such forgetting reflects impaired access to an entire episode or retrieval competition among elements of an episode. During most of the history of memory research there has been a decided preference for studying accuracy in memory performance, but in recent years there has been growing interest in memory errors. Two types of memory errors that have drawn considerable attention—forgetting and false memory—are functional opposites: Forgetting is the failure to remember information to which one has been exposed (an error of omission); false memory is the (incorrect) remembering of information to which one has not been exposed (an error of commission). The two experiments reported here were designed to examine the interplay of forgetting and false memory. For both experiments we used a paradigm that has been markedly successful in creating false memories in the laboratory: the Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) paradigm (Deese, 1959; Roediger & McDermott, 1995; see also Read, 1996), in which an unpresented word, the “critical item,” is falsely recalled at a high rate following presentation of its strongest associates. To induce participants to forget studied words from DRM lists, we used two quite different procedures: In Experiment 1, we used directed forgetting (e.g., R. A. Bjork, 1970; see MacLeod, 1998, for an elegant and thorough review), and in Experiment 2, we used part-list cuing (e.g., Slamecka, 1968; see Nickerson, 1984, for a thorough review). These two procedures differ in some important ways, including whether the resultant forgetting is consistent or inconsistent with participants’ goals, but both procedures induce a particular type of forgetting—retrieval inhibition—that takes the form of impaired access to studied items during free recall.
TL;DR: Koriat et al. as discussed by the authors used a framework to address control over the grain size (precision-coarseness) of the information that people report and found that rememberers strategically regulate the grain of their answers to accommodate the competing goals of accuracy and informativeness.
Abstract: To increase their report accuracy, rememberers may either withhold information that they feel unsure about or provide relatively coarse information that is unlikely to be wrong. In previous work (A. Koriat & M. Goldsmith, 1996c), the authors delineated the metacognitive monitoring and control processes underlying the decision to volunteer or withhold particular items of information (report option) and examined how these processes are used in the strategic regulation of memory accuracy. This article adapts that framework to address control over the grain size (precision-coarseness) of the information that people report. Results show that rememberers strategically regulate the grain of their answers to accommodate the competing goals of accuracy and informativeness. The metacognitive processes underlying this regulation are elucidated.
TL;DR: This paper investigated whether people also use the spatial distribution of exemplars and found that people are biased away from a midline category boundary toward geometric prototypes located at the centers of left and right categories.
Abstract: People use geometric cues to form spatial categories. This study investigated whether people also use the spatial distribution of exemplars. Adults pointed to remembered locations on a tabletop. In Experiment 1, a target was placed in each geometric category, and the location of targets was varied. Adults' responses were biased away from a midline category boundary toward geometric prototypes located at the centers of left and right categories. Experiment 2 showed that prototype effects were not influenced by cross-category interactions. In Experiment 3, subsets of targets were positioned at different locations within each category. When prototype effects were removed, there was a bias toward the center of the exemplar distribution, suggesting that common categorization processes operate across spatial and object domains.
TL;DR: It was found that the lower region is defined relative to the stimulus display, linking the lower-region preference to pictorial depth perception cues.
Abstract: Figure– ground assignment is an important visual process; humans recognize, attend to, and act on figures, not backgrounds. There are many visual cues for figure– ground assignment. A new cue to figure– ground assignment, called lower region, is presented: Regions in the lower portion of a stimulus array appear more figurelike than regions in the upper portion of the display. This phenomenon was explored, and it was demonstrated that the lower-region preference is not influenced by contrast, eye movements, or voluntary spatial attention. It was found that the lower region is defined relative to the stimulus display, linking the lower-region preference to pictorial depth perception cues. The results are discussed in terms of the environmental regularities that this new figure– ground cue may reflect. Figure– ground assignment is a well-known psychological phenomenon; illustrations of figure– ground assignment appear in most introductory psychology textbooks, and most psychology students recognize these examples. Figure– ground assignment is the process by which the visual system organizes a visual scene into figures (occluding, foreground regions) and grounds (occluded regions) following the initial formation of those regions (Palmer & Rock, 1994). Determining which regions are figures and which are grounds is an important visual process because everyday visual scenes contain multiple objects that often overlap and partially occlude one another. Figure– ground processes have been studied most extensively by perceptual and cognitive scientists (see Palmer, 1999; Pomerantz & Kubovy, 1986; Rock, 1983, 1995; and Rock & Palmer, 1990), but developmental studies have also investigated the perception of occluded objects (e.g., Spelke, 1990). Also, social psychologists have demonstrated that figure– ground processes are influenced by motivational factors; reward and punishment appear to influence figure– ground separation (Schafer & Murphy, 1943). Figure– ground assignment is a fundamental visual process because figural regions form the basis of a wide range of behavior; humans are more likely to recognize, attend to, and act upon foreground figures rather than backgrounds. Thus, the study of figure-ground assignment has a central role in explaining higher-level visual and visuomotor behavior. There are several consequences, or effects, of figure– ground assignment. Rubin (1915/1958), who was the first Gestalt psychologist to study figure– ground assignment rigorously, noted that figures seem more salient than grounds and that figures have a
TL;DR: The experiments showed that studying associates enhances semantic, but not perceptual, processing of prototypes, and that claims of recognizing prototypes can be modified by presenting them in predictive or incongruous contexts at test.
Abstract: According to the discrepancy-attribution hypothesis (B. W. A. Whittlesea & L. D. Williams, 1998), people experience a feeling of familiarity when they perceive their processing to be surprising, but for an indefinite reason. This hypothesis has been successful in explaining several illusions of familiarity. Here, it is applied to the prototype-familiarity effect, an illusion of remembering that occurs when people are shown prototype words after studying lists of associates. The experiments showed that studying associates enhances semantic, but not perceptual, processing of prototypes. They also showed that claims of recognizing prototypes can be modified by presenting them in predictive or incongruous contexts at test. The evidence suggests that the effect results from an evaluation process that monitors the coherence of processing.
TL;DR: The cumulative results indicate that chimpanzees show a left-hemisphere asymmetry in motor skill that is associated with the use of precision grips.
Abstract: Three experiments on grip morphology and hand use were conducted in a sample of chimpanzees. In Experiment 1, grip morphology when grasping food items was recorded, and it was found that subjects who adopted a precision grip were more right-handed than chimpanzees using other grips. In Experiment 2, the effect of food type on grasping was assessed. Smaller food items elicited significantly more precision grips for the right hand. In Experiment 3, error rates in grasping foods were compared between the left and right hands. Significantly more errors were made for the left compared with the right hand. The cumulative results indicate that chimpanzees show a left-hemisphere asymmetry in motor skill that is associated with the use of precision grips.
TL;DR: In 6 experiments, nonselective biases were found in perceptual, affective, and cognitive judgments of nonhuman targets, objects, and concepts, thus supporting a cognitive rather than a social account.
Abstract: People are frequently required to judge how particular group members measure up against others in their group. According to the local-comparisons-general-standards (LOGE) approach, in these member-to-group comparisons, people fail to use the normatively appropriate local (group) standard and are infelicitously affected by a more general standard (involving instances from outside the judged group). Within positive groups, target group members are judged superior to the other members of the group, and within negative groups, inferior. To date, these nonselective superiority and inferiority biases have been demonstrated solely in judgments about human beings. In 6 experiments, nonselective biases were found in perceptual, affective, and cognitive judgments of nonhuman targets, objects, and concepts, thus supporting a cognitive rather than a social account.
TL;DR: Evidence is presented about 2 mechanisms of remembering that occur when target stimuli are presented in meaningful contexts and appear to result from the construction of expectations and evaluation of outcomes, but the former appears to depend on the formation of definite expectations, whereas the latter appears todepend on indefinite expectations.
Abstract: In this article, the author presents evidence about 2 mechanisms of remembering that occur when target stimuli are presented in meaningful contexts. One occurs when the context has been seen previously; the other occurs when the context is new in the test. Both appear to result from the construction of expectations and evaluation of outcomes, but the former appears to depend on the formation of definite expectations, whereas the latter appears to depend on indefinite expectations. These 2 routes to remembering are affected by different factors and cause dissociated patterns of remembering. They also have differential significance for claims of clear recall versus a feeling of familiarity. The results are discussed in terms of the SCAPE framework of memory.
TL;DR: A simple 2-dimensional signal-detection model of source recognition is presented and the receiver operating characteristics (ROCs) obtained from 3 experiments are used to test the model, which demonstrates 3 regularities that support the model.
Abstract: Source memory has become the focus of a growing number of investigations in a variety of fields. An appropriate model for source memory is, therefore, of increasing importance. A simple 2-dimensional signal-detection model of source recognition is presented. The receiver operating characteristics (ROCs) obtained from 3 experiments are then used to test the model. The data demonstrate 3 regularities: convex ROCs, z-ROCs with linear slopes of 1.00, and slightly concave z-ROCs. Two of these regularities support the model. The 3rd requires a revision of the model. This revised model is fitted to the data. The implications of these regularities for other theories are also discussed.
TL;DR: Listeners of all ages expected the next tone in a melody to be proximate in pitch to the tone heard most recently, and older listeners expected reversals of pitch direction, specifically for tones that changed direction after a disruption of proximity.
Abstract: Melodic expectancies among children and adults were examined. In Experiment 1, adults, 11-year-olds, and 8-year-olds rated how well individual test tones continued fragments of melodies. In Experiment 2, 11-, 8-, and 5-year-olds sang continuations to 2-tone stimuli. Response patterns were analyzed using 2 models of melodic expectancy. Despite having fewer predictor variables, the 2-factor model (E. G. Schellenberg, 1997) equaled or surpassed the implication-realization model (E. Narmour, 1990) in predictive accuracy. Listeners of all ages expected the next tone in a melody to be proximate in pitch to the tone heard most recently. Older listeners also expected reversals of pitch direction, specifically for tones that changed direction after a disruption of proximity and for tones that formed symmetric patterns.
TL;DR: This paper found that people use sample variability, uncorrected for sample size, in tasks in which a correction is normatively called for, and indeed perceive variability as smaller than it is.
Abstract: It has long been claimed that people perceive the world as less variable and more regular than it actually is. Such misperception, if shown to exist, could explain some perplexing behaviors. However, evidence supporting the claim is indirect, and there is no explanation of its cause. As a possible cause, the authors suggest that people use sample variability as an estimate of population variability. This is so because the sampling distribution of sample variance is downward attenuated, the attenuation being substantial for sample sizes that people consider. Results of 5 experiments show that people use sample variability, uncorrected for sample size, in tasks in which a correction is normatively called for, and indeed perceive variability as smaller than it is.
TL;DR: The authors explored the phenomenon that knowledge is not always integrated and consistent but may be partitioned into independent parcels that may contain mutually contradictory information and support the notion that people simplify complex learning tasks by acquiring independent parcels of knowledge.
Abstract: The authors explored the phenomenon that knowledge is not always integrated and consistent but may be partitioned into independent parcels that may contain mutually contradictory information. In 4 experiments, using a function learning paradigm, a binary context variable was paired with the continuous stimulus variable of a to-be-learned function. In the first 2 experiments, when context predicted the slope of a quadratic function, generalization was context specific. Because context did not predict function values, it is suggested that people use context to gate separate learning of simpler partial functions. The 3rd experiment showed that partitioning also occurs with a decreasing linear function, whereas the 4th study showed that partitioning is absent for a linearly increasing function. The results support the notion that people simplify complex learning tasks by acquiring independent parcels of knowledge.
TL;DR: Six experiments are reported that showed the presence in newborns of a perceptual dominance of global over local visual information in hierarchical patterns, similar to that observed in adults, suggesting parallels between newborns' visual processing and processing later in development.
Abstract: Six experiments are reported that were aimed at demonstrating the presence in newborns of a perceptual dominance of global over local visual information in hierarchical patterns, similar to that observed in adults (D. Navon, 1977, 1981). The first four experiments showed that, even though both levels of visual information were detectable by the newborn (Experiments 1A and 1B), global cues enjoyed some advantage over local cues (Experiments 2 and 3). Experiments 4A and 4B demonstrated that the global bias was strictly dependent on the low spatial frequency content of the stimuli and vanished after selective removal of low spatial frequencies. The results are interpreted as suggesting parallels between newborns' visual processing and processing later in development.
TL;DR: The current study applied several sets of measurement models to both forced-choice and yes-no recognition memory tests and concluded that the traditional signal-detection model resulted in distorted estimates of accuracy.
Abstract: A fundamental challenge to psychological research is the measurement of cognitive processes uncontaminated by response strategies resulting from different testing procedures. Test-free estimates of ability are vital when comparing the performance of different groups or different conditions. The current study applied several sets of measurement models to both forced-choice and yes-no recognition memory tests and concluded that the traditional signal-detection model resulted in distorted estimates of accuracy. Two-factor models were necessary to separate memory sensitivity from response bias. These models indicated that (a) memory accuracy did not differ across the tests and (b) the tests relied on the same underlying memory processes. The results illustrate the pitfalls of using a single-component model to measure accuracy in tasks that reflect 2 or more underlying processes.
TL;DR: The authors investigated whether language-expressible magnitude comparisons distort mental representations of compared magnitudes and found that comparison-induced distortions might explain the asymmetric dominance effect discussed in the decision-making literature.
Abstract: Many cognitive processes rely on representations of magnitude, yet these representations are often malleable (H. Helson, 1964; J. Huttenlocher, L. V. Hedges, & J. L. Vevea, 2000; A. Parducci, 1965). It is likely that factors that affect these representations in turn affect the psychological processes that rely on them. The authors conducted 4 experiments to investigate whether language-expressible magnitude comparisons distort mental representations of compared magnitudes. Participants compared magnitudes and estimated those magnitudes in a variety of tasks. Experiments 1 through 3 demonstrated systematic comparison-induced distortions. Experiment 4 demonstrated that comparison-induced distortions might account for the asymmetric dominance effect discussed in the decision-making literature. Potential effects of comparison-induced distortions on other psychological processes (e.g., density effects, order effects, body-size estimation, pain estimation, and consumer decision making) are discussed.
TL;DR: Di Lollo et al. as mentioned in this paper showed that many current models can account for V.V. Di Lolo et al.'s (2000) data and that reentrant processing is not necessary.
Abstract: V. Di Lolo, J. T. Enns, and R. A. Rensink (2000) reported properties of masking that they claimed were inconsistent with all current models. The current authors show, through computer simulation, that many current models can account for V. Di Lollo et al.'s (2000) data. Although V. Di Lollo et al. (2000) argued that their data could be accounted for only with models that incorporate reentrant processing, the current authors show that reentrant processing is not necessary.
TL;DR: A theoretical and experimental framework for assessing the biases associated with the interpretation of numbers is presented and the data suggest that relative frequencies and decimals are associated with different abstract representations of amount.
Abstract: This article presents a theoretical and experimental framework for assessing the biases associated with the interpretation of numbers. This framework consists of having participants convert between different representations of quantities. These representations should include both variations in numerical labels that symbolize quantities and variations in displays in which quantity is inherent. Five experiments assessed how people convert between relative frequencies, decimals, and displays of dots that denote very low proportions (i.e., proportions below 1%). The participants demonstrated perceptual, response, and numerical transformation biases. Furthermore, the data suggest that relative frequencies and decimals are associated with different abstract representations of amount.