锚定效应的产生前提及作用机制

为了探讨锚定效应的产生前提以及基础锚定效应的理论解释,设计了两个实验。实验一选取高、低、无三种锚值,设置了15ms、45ms、75ms、1000ms四种呈现时间,结果发现只有15ms条件下未出现锚定效应,随着呈现时间增加,锚定效应不断增大,低锚下的锚定效应高于高锚下的锚定效应。实验二设置了语意相同但表述形式不同的两种水平的锚值,结果发现两者引发的锚定效应不同。锚定效应的产生前提是注意,数字启动假说可以更好地解释基础锚定效应。     

The role of similarity in inattentional blindness: Selective enhancement,selective suppression,or both?†

When people selectively pay attention to one set of objects and ignore another, unexpected stimuli often go unnoticed. Noticing rates are higher when the unexpected object matches the features of the attended items and lower when it matches those of the ignored items. No prior studies have fully disentangled these aspects of similarity; in previous work, the unexpected object fell on a continuum between the attended and ignored objects, so increasing the similarity to one set of objects necessarily decreased it to the other. We designed an inattentional blindness task in which we held similarity to the attended set constant and varied it with respect only to the ignored set, or vice versa. In Experiment 1, objects that were more similar to the attended set were noticed more often and objects that were more similar to the ignored set were noticed less often. Experiment 2, using a different set of unexpected objects, replicated the result that similarity to the ignored set affected noticing, but showed no effect of similarity to the attended set. In both experiments, the pattern of noticing rates differed for similarity with respect to the attended and ignored items, suggesting that suppression of ignored objects functions independently of enhancement of attended objects.     

Similar as well as dissimilar contextual stimuli increase rated similarity

Contextual stimuli from one category increase the rated similarity of stimuli from a second category. In Experiment 1, associates of one of the members of pairs of target words increased the rated similarity of the members slightly more than did much less similar contextual stimuli. In Experiment 2, contextual category names and good exemplars increased the rated similarity of pairs of poor to medium target exemplars and were also rated as more similar to these targets than the targets were to each other. In both cases, the category names resulted in the stronger effect. This ability of contextually similar stimuli to increase rated similarity opposes the distance-density and averaging-judgmental theories of the effect of context on similarity. However, the theory that a positive association exists between the perceived similarity of stimuli and the strength of the category to which they belong explains how both contextually dissimilar and contextually similar stimuli can increase rated similarity.     

Perception of psychophysical experiments

Summary Two experiments were conducted to determine perceived similarities among psychophysical tasks. In Exp. I Ss first participated in five brightness-perception tasks: category estimation, magnitude estimation, absolute judgment, method of constant stimuli, and binary choice. At the conclusion of this phase, they rated the similarity of each pair of tasks according to each of four judgment criteria: general similarity, visual discrimination, learning, and memory. The average ratings were scaled, yielding a one-dimensional solution; where absolute judgment and category estimation were grouped at one end, constant stimuli and binary choice at the other, and magnitude estimation in between. In Experiment II another group rated similarity of the tasks based only upon relevant instructions. (They did not actually judge brigthness.) Scaling results were in agreement with those obtained in Exp. I. Theoretical implications are examined and tested in the second part of this work (Baird & Szilagyi, 1977)The present article is the first of a two-part series. Some of the results reported here were first presented at the 1974 meetings of the Psychonomic Society in Boston     

The effect of different methods to construct non-symbolic stimuli in numerosity estimation and comparison

Numerosity estimation and comparison tasks are often used to measure the acuity of the approximate number system (ANS), a mechanism which allows extracting numerosity from an array of dots independently from several visual cues (e.g. area extended by the dots). This idea is supported by studies showing that numerosity can be processed while these visual cues are controlled for. Different methods to construct dot arrays while controlling their visual cues have been proposed in the past. In this paper, these methods were contrasted in an estimation and a comparison task. The way of constructing the dot arrays had little impact on estimation. In contrast, in the comparison task, participants' performance was significantly influenced by the method that was used to construct the arrays of dots, indicating better performance when the visual cues of the dot arrays (partly) co-varied with numerosity. The present study therefore shows that estimates of ANS acuity derived from comparison tasks are inconsistent and dependent on how the stimuli are constructed. This makes it difficult to compare studies which utilised different methods to construct the dot arrays in numerosity comparison tasks. In addition, these results question the currently held view of the ANS as capable of robustly extracting numerosity independently from visual cues.     

On estimating the difference limen in duration discrimination tasks: a comparison of the 2AFC and the reminder task

This article assesses whether the two-alternative forced-choice (2AFC) and the reminder tasks (i.e., method of constant stimuli) yield identical estimates of the difference limen (DL). In a series of six experiments, participants discriminated between two duration stimuli. Experiments 1-5 employed auditory stimuli, and Experiment 6 employed visual stimuli. Experiments 1 and 2 combined each of the two tasks with an adaptive and a nonadaptive procedure for threshold estimation. Experiment 3 varied the distribution of the comparison levels, whereas Experiment 4 employed random interstimulus intervals. Experiments 5 and 6 examined the influence of the presentation order of the standard and comparison stimuli. Results indicate that both the adaptive and the nonadaptive procedures yield virtually identical DL estimates; yet, the 2AFC task produces consistently larger DLs than does the reminder task. In addition, DL increases when the standard occurs in the second rather than in the first stimulus position. In order to account for these results, we assume that participants use an internal standard instead of the actually presented standard as a reference for their judgment.     

归类优势与基本水平效应的再探讨

类别特异性分数是预测归类优势的有效指标。实验1考察该分数能否预测基本水平归类优势, 结果：分数较高的表现归类优势。实验2检验有归类优势的下位类别的分数, 结果：它们都有较高分数, 同时发现下位类别的特异性可以影响分数。实验3探讨相同的基本水平与特异性不同的下位组合的归类表现, 结果：下位特异性低就表现基本水平归类优势, 高则相反。据此提出“经验说”, 分数高低与人们在经验中对各层次类别形成的表征特异性程度相关。     

Children use categories to maximize accuracy in estimation

The present study tests a model of category effects upon stimulus estimation in children. Prior work with adults suggests that people inductively generalize distributional information about a category of stimuli and use this information to adjust their estimates of individual stimuli in a way that maximizes average accuracy in estimation (see Huttenlocher, Hedges & Vevea, 2000). However, little is known about the developmental origin of this cognitive process. In the present study, 5- and 7-year-old children viewed stimuli that varied in size and reproduced each from memory. Consistent with the predictions of a Bayesian model of category effects on estimation, responses were adjusted toward the central value of the stimulus distribution. Additionally, the dispersion of the stimulus distribution affected the pattern of bias and variability of responses in a way that is predicted by the model. The results suggest that, like adults, children use categories for increasing average accuracy in estimating inexact stimuli.     

Measuring the influence of similarity on category-specific effects

There is evidence for both advantages and disadvantages in normal recognition of living over nonliving things. This paradox has been attributed to high levels of perceptual similarity within living categories having a different effect on performance in different contexts. However, since living things are intrinsically more similar to each other, previous studies could not determine whether the various category effects were due to perceptual similarity, or to other characteristics of living things. We used novel animal and vehicle stimuli that were matched for similarity to measure the influence of perceptual similarity in different contexts. We found that displaying highly similar objects in blocked sets reduced their perceived similarity, eliminating the detrimental effect on naming performance. Experiment 1 demonstrated a disadvantage for highly similar objects in name learning and name verification using mixed groups of similar and dissimilar animals and vehicles. Experiment 2 demonstrated no disadvantage for the same highly similar objects when they were blocked, e.g., similar animals presented alone. Thus, perceptual similarity, rather than other characteristics particular to living things, is affected by context, and could create apparent category effects under certain testing conditions.     

Interaction of knowledge-driven and data-driven processing in category learning

The present paper argues that category learning is both a data-driven and a knowledge-driven process. This is described in a generic model that distinguishes between categorical knowledge, conceptual knowledge, and implicit cognitive theories. The model assumes that each of these knowledge aspects may affect the process of category learning by affecting the way similarities between objects are perceived. This central assumption of the model is tested in two experiments. The first experiment shows that the presence or absence of prior categorical and conceptual knowledge affects the psychological stimulus space by changing the saliency of the stimulus dimensions. The second experiment uses these weights to predict the distribution of errors over the stimuli and the number of trials to criterion in category learning by other participants under the same knowledge conditions. We conclude that prior categorical and conceptual knowledge affect category learning by mediation of similarity perception, and discuss the implications of these results.     

儿童早期分类与基于类别的归纳的一致性

传统的观点认为,儿童早期的分类是基于类别的归纳的基础。根据这种观点,儿童早期的分类与基于类别的归纳是一致的。该研究在不同材料条件下测试了4岁儿童面临知觉相似和概念冲突时的自由分类与归纳推理的一致性。研究结果显示,在照片条件下,4岁儿童的自由分类和基于类别的归纳是不一致的,儿童的分类主要是基于知觉相似的,而基于类别的归纳主要是基于概念的;在线条画条件下,儿童的分类与基于类别的归纳是一致的,都主要是基于知觉相似的。这些结果显示,儿童早期的分类和基于类别的关系是复杂的。     

Perceptual differentiation as a source of category effects in object processing: Evidence from naming and object decision

The locus of category effects in picture recognition and naming was examined in two experiments with normal subjects. Subjects carried out object decision (deciding whether the stimulus is a “real” object or not) and naming tasks with pictures of clothing, furniture, fruit, and vegetables. These categories are distinguished by containing either relatively many exemplars with similar perceptual structures (fruit and vegetables;structurally similar categories), or relatively few exemplars with similar perceptual structures (clothing and furniture;structurally dissimilar categories). In Experiment 1, responses to the stimuli from the structurally similar categories were slower than responses to stimuli from the structurally dissimilar categories, and this effect was larger in the naming than in the object decision task. Further, prior object decisions to stimuli from structurally similar categories facilitated their subsequent naming. In Experiment 2, we orthogonally manipulated object decision and naming as prime and target tasks, again with stimuli from the four categories. Category effects, with responses slower to objects from structurally similar categories, were again larger in naming than in object decision, and these category effects in naming were reduced by priming with both naming and object decision. We interpret the data to indicate that category effects in object naming can reflect visually based competition which is reduced by the preactivation of stored structural knowledge for objects.     

When any Worx looks typical to you: Global relative to local processing increases prototypicality and liking

Two studies examine novelty categorization theory's (Förster, Marguc & Gillebaart, 2010) assumption that global compared to local processing styles enhance typicality judgments of atypical objects and thereby enhance liking. We used an artificial category of figures for an alleged computer game including a prototype and three exemplars that varied with respect to similarity with it. Results show that when primed with a global processing style, participants find atypical objects more typical, like them better and process them faster than participants under a local processing style. Mediation analyses show that typicality mediates the effects of processing styles on liking, and that ease of categorization mediates the effect of processing styles on prototypicality. Mood, measured via self report did not influence effects. The studies reflect the fact that judged typicality and its effects are context dependent.     

Within-category feature correlations and Bayesian adjustment strategies

To the extent that categories inform judgments about items, the accuracy with which categories capture the statistical structure of experience should affect judgment accuracy. The authors argue that representations of feature correlations can serve as Bayesian priors, increasing the accuracy of stimulus estimates by decreasing variability. Participants viewed a series of objects that varied on two dimensions that were either uncorrelated or correlated. They estimated each item by manipulating a response object to make it match the presented stimulus. Subsequent classification and featureinference tasks indicated that the correlation was detected. The pattern of variability in recollections of stimuli suggested that the feature correlation informed estimates as predicted by a Bayesian model of category effects on memory. This work was supported by NIMH Grant 1 F31 MH12072-01A1 to the first author.     

Relational similarity and the nonindependence of features in similarity judgments

Four experiments examined the hypothesis that simple attributional features and relational features operate differently in the determination of similarity judgments. Forced choice similarity judgments ("Is X or Y more similar to Z?") and similarity rating tasks demonstrate that making the same featural change in two geometric stimuli unequally affects their judged similarity to a third stimulus (the comparison stimulus). More specifically, a featural change that causes stimuli to be more superficially similar and less relationally similar increases judged similarity if it occurs in stimuli that already share many superficial attributes, and decreases similarity if it occurs in stimuli that do not share as many superficial attributes. These results argue against an assumption of feature independence which asserts that the degree to which a feature shared by two objects affects similarity is independent of the other features shared by the objects. The MAX hypothesis is introduced, in which attributional and relational similarities are separately pooled, and shared features affect similarity more if the pool they are in is already relatively large. The results support claims that relations and attributes are psychologically distinct and that formal measures of similarity should not treat all types of matching features equally.     

Evidence for an age-independent process in category learning

After learning to categorize a set of alien-like stimuli in the context of a story, a group of 5-year-old children and adults judged pairs of stimuli from different categories to be less similar than did groups not learning the category distinction. In a same-different task, the learning group made more errors on pairs of non-identical stimuli from the same category than did the other groups, suggesting increased within-category item similarity, or compression. These expansion and compression effects add further support to the view that concept formation involves systematic changes in the metric of similarity space within which objects are represented. They also suggest that these processes do not vary with age, which is at least consistent with the hypothesis that they are fundamental to the mechanisms underlying concept formation.     

The task rule congruency effect in task switching reflects activated long-term memory

Reaction time task rule congruency effects (RT-TRCEs) reflect faster responses to stimuli for which the competing task rules indicate the same correct response than to stimuli indicating conflicting responses. The authors tested the hypothesis that RT-TRCE reflects activated overlearned response category codes in long-term memory (such as up or left). The results support the hypothesis by showing that (a) RT-TRCE was absent for tasks for which there were no response codes ready beforehand, (b) RT-TRCE was present after these tasks were practiced, and (c) these practice effects were found only if the tasks permitted forming abstract response category codes. The increase in the RT-TRCE with response slowness, found only for familiar tasks, suggests that the abstract response category codes may be verbal or linguistic in these cases. The results are discussed in relation to task-switching theories and prefrontal functions.     

Category variability, exemplar similarity, and perceptual classification

Experiments were conducted in which observers learned to classify simple perceptual stimuli into low-variability and high-variability categories. Similarities between objects were measured in independent psychological-scaling tasks. The results showed that observers classified transfer stimuli into the high-variability categories with greater probability than was predicted by a baseline version of an exemplar-similarity model. Qualitative evidence for the role of category variability on perceptual classification, which could not be explained in terms of the baseline exemplar-similarity model, was obtained as well. Possible accounts of the effects of category variability are considered in the General Discussion section.     

What makes a man similar to a tie? Stimulus compatibility with comparison and integration

We argue and show that different properties of stimuli are compatible with different types of processing. Specifically, object pairs from the same taxonomic category (e.g., chair-bed) tend to be alignable and thus compatible with comparison, whereas object pairs that play different roles in thematic relations (e.g., chair-carpenter) tend to be nonalignable and compatible with integration. Using object pairs that varied orthogonally in alignability and thematic relatedness, we demonstrated that stimulus compatibility modulates processing and affects the outcomes of tasks that are currently believed to involve only comparison (similarity ratings, Experiment 1; listing commonalities and differences, Experiment 2) or only integration (thematic relatedness ratings, Experiment 3). Our findings and others that we have reviewed suggest that: (1) many cognitive tasks involve both comparison and integration, and (2) the relative influence of each process is modulated by an interplay between the task-appropriate and the stimulus-compatible process. We believe that single-process models should be extended to take this interplay into account.