Common sense as psychosocial reality: A reply to Sjöberg

Attempted explications of common sense can be submitted to consensual validation. Therefore, purely programmatic discussion about common sense may be dispensed with in favor of actual studies. The failures to recognize the fundamental role of common sense may stem from an unreflective presupposition that psychological language and psychological reality are independent realms. Actually, language and psychosocial reality are mutually constitutive, and the total cultural order is built upon common sense. We are not free to choose conceptualizations. Our theorizing must consist of explications of common sense.     

The validity of the serial color-word test A reply to Lennart Sjöberg

Abstract.— In reply to Lennart Sjoberg's conclusion that the reliabilities and validities of the serial Color-Word Test are at best moderate the present authors claim that, given reliable and adequate criteria, the validities are high. Hence, the true reliabilities can hardly be low. Supporting data are presented. However, the test should not be used merely to identify psychiatric syndrome groups, but rather to broaden our knowledge about them by unveiling their adaptive strategies.     

Interpersonal similarity as a social distance dimension: Implications for perception of others’ actions

Building on the assumption that interpersonal similarity is a form of social distance, the current research examines the manner in which similarity influences the representation and judgment of others’ actions. On the basis of a construal level approach, we hypothesized that greater levels of similarity would increase the relative weight of subordinate and secondary features of information in judgments of others’ actions. The results of four experiments showed that compared to corresponding judgments of a dissimilar target, participants exposed to a similar target person identified that person’s actions in relatively more subordinate means-related rather than superordinate ends-related terms (Experiment 1), perceived his or her actions to be determined more by feasibility and less by desirability concerns (Experiment 3), and gave more weight to secondary aspects in judgments of the target’s decisions (Experiment 2) and performance (Experiment 4). Implications for the study of interpersonal similarity, as well as social distance in general, are discussed.     

Nested models of relative judgment: Applications to a similarity averaging model

A theoretical analysis of the Eisler and Ekman (1959) model of similarity judgments for unidimensional continua is presented, based on a general model of relative judgment. This general model assumes that judgments are mediated by perceived relations of pairs of stimuli, that there exists a transformation of the judgmental response that is a function of the sensory ratio of the two stimuli, and that response bias operates in a multiplicative manner. Three structural conditions are presented, each imposing constraints on the structure of observed judgments. The structural conditions define threenested models of relative judgment, with the second a weakened version of the first, and the third a weakened version of the second. The special virtue of the general model is that it is applicable to a variety of judgmental tasks (e.g., ratio estimation, similarity, pair comparison), the key being derivation of theresponse transformation conforming to the structural conditions. The structural conditions thus constitute necessary conditions for several different judgmental models. The theory was first applied with success to ratio estimation judgments (Fagot, 1978), and this paper applies the general model to the Eisler and Ekman similarity “averaging” model. Empirical tests were carried out on published data for pitch, darkness, visual area, and heaviness judgments. Although the strong form of the model presented by Eisler and Ekman was rejected, weakened versions were generally supported by the data. These results were similar to those obtained for ratio estimation (Fagot, 1978), and are interpreted to be very promising for the general model of relative judgment.     

Application of geometric models to letter recognition: distance and density

This article reviews studies in which a single letter is visually presented under adverse conditions and the subject's task is to identify the letter. The typical results for such studies are (a) certain pairs of letters are more often confused than other pairs of letters; (b) certain letters are more easily recognized than others; and (c) confusion errors for a letter pair are often asymmetric, the number of errors differing depending on which letter of the pair is presented as the stimulus. A geometric model incorporating the properties of distance and spatial density (after Krumhansl) is presented to account for these results. The present application of the distance-density model assumes that each letter is constructed in a typical 5 X 7 dot matrix. Each letter is represented in 35-dimensional space based on its constituent dots. A central idea behind the model, embodied in the property of spatial density, is that an explanation of typical results must take into account the relationship of the entire stimulus set to both the presented letter and the responded letter. Specifically, according to the model, (a) pairs of letters that are close in geometric space are more often confused than pairs of letters that are distant; (b) letters that are in less spatially dense regions are more easily recognized than letters that are in more spatially dense regions; and (c) asymmetric confusion errors result when one member of a letter pair is in a denser region than the other member of the letter pair. The distance-density model is applied to published and unpublished results of the authors as well as published results from two other laboratories. Alternative explanations of the three typical letter recognition results are also considered. The most successful alternative explanations are (a) confusions are an increasing function of the number of dots that two letters share; (b) letters constructed from fewer dots are easier to recognize; and (c) asymmetries arise when one member of a letter pair is more easily recognized, since that letter then has fewer confusion errors to give to the other letter of the pair. The model is discussed in terms of the distinction between template matching and feature analysis. An alternative classification of letter recognition models is proposed based on the global versus local qualities of features and the spatial information associated with each feature. The model is extended to explain reaction time study results. It is suggested that the distance-density model can be used to create optimal letter fonts by minimizing interletter confusions and maximizing letter recognizability.     

Determining transformation distance in similarity: Considerations for assessing representational changes a priori

The representational distortion (RD) approach to similarity (e.g., Hahn, Chater, & Richardson, 2003 Hahn, U., Chater, N. and Richardson, L. B. 2003. Similarity as transformation. Cognition, 87: 1–32.  [Google Scholar]) proposes that similarity is computed using the transformation distance between two entities. We argue that researchers who adopt this approach need to be concerned with how representational transformations can be determined a priori. We discuss several roadblocks to using this approach. Specifically we demonstrate the difficulties inherent in determining what transformations are psychologically salient and the importance of considering the directionality of transformations.     

Judgments of similarity and spatial models

Ss judged the similarity between all pairs of stimulus objects under 3 conditions: when the objects were (a) Munsell 5R color patches varying in value and chroma; (b) parallelorams varying in size and tilt; and (c) circles-with-radius varying in diameter and angle of radius. For each set of judgments, the pattern of deviations from the Euclidean model was used to diagnose the most appropriate spatial model. The results confirm previous findings that the Euclidean space is appropriate for judgments of color patches, but that the city block space is appropriate for judgments of geometrie forms which vary on perceptually distinct dimensions.     

Pythagorean distance and the judged similarity of schematic stimuli

Independent groups of Ss rated the similarity of pairs of patterns belonging to the same class, either bef ore or af ter a discrimination task of schematic concept formation (SCF). Mean similarity increased as a function of SCF pretraining. A linear relationship was found between a Pythagorean distance measure on the patterns and subjective similarity of pairs of stimuli (r=.88). No such relationship was obtained from an analysis of judgments from a group that viewed random, nonschematic stimuli. A secondary analysis of the discrimination judgments in the SCF task showed that the Pythagorean distance measure was predictive of judgments on pairs of stimuli from the same schema family, but the relationship did not hold for pairs representing two different schemata. Multidimensional scaling analyses indicated that mildly deviant schematic stimuli were perceived to be instances of a single family. The dimensions describing a schema cluster appeared to be specific to the sample of stimuli. A tendency for the Kruskal procedures to collapse certain types of stimulus clusters was observed and discussed.     

Representation over time: the effects of temporal distance on similarity

Similarity is central in human cognition, playing a role in a wide range of cognitive processes. In three studies, we demonstrate that subjective similarity may change as a function of temporal distance, with some events seeming more similar when considered in the near future, while others increase in similarity as temporal distance increases. Given the ubiquity of inter-temporal thought, and the fundamental role of similarity, these results have important implications for cognition in general.     

Absolute and relative effects of similarity and distance on grouping

Four experiments are reported, the aim of which was to explore the achromatic-colour and distance relations that determine the probability of achromatic surfaces grouping perceptually. The first two experiments were performed to test Wertheimer's conjecture that similarity and dissimilarity of achromatic colours jointly determine grouping. The results indicate that only similarity of achromatic colours determines grouping. Data from the other two experiments show that grouping is determined by absolute, relative, and Gillam's distances. These findings agree with previous literature showing that different algorithms or mechanisms determine grouping by similarity and grouping by distance. Additionally, these findings show that the single factor of grouping by distance also depends on multiple algorithms or mechanisms.     

WINDSOR: Windsor improved norms of distance and similarity of representations of semantics

Lexical co-occurrence models of semantic memory form representations of the meaning of a word on the basis of the number of times that pairs of words occur near one another in a large body of text. These models offer a distinct advantage over models that require the collection of a large number of judgments from human subjects, since the construction of the representations can be completely automated. Unfortunately, word frequency, a well-known predictor of reaction time in several cognitive tasks, has a strong effect on the co-occurrence counts in a corpus. Two words with high frequency are more likely to occur together purely by chance than are two words that occur very infrequently. In this article, we examine a modification of a successful method for constructing semantic representations from lexical co-occurrence. We show that our new method eliminates the influence of frequency, while still capturing the semantic characteristics of words.     

Anaphor resolution as a function of spatial distance and priming: exploring the spatial distance effect in situation models

Anaphor resolution has been found to depend on the spatial distance between the reader's focus of attention and the location of the anaphor referent in a spatially organized situation model (spatial distance effect; Rinck & Bower, 1995). This effect implies that a) the situation model is spatially organized and b) spatial distance has a stronger effect on the resolution of anaphoric reference than the text priming the anaphor referent. In three experiments, adult participants read 12 short narratives about protagonists moving around a building. Mentionning the location of the anaphor referent in text prior to the anaphoric sentence facilitated anaphor resolution. Decreased spatial distance consistently facilitated anaphor resolution, even when priming the anaphor referent affected anaphor resolution more strongly than spatial distance. Results are discussed with regard to the interpretation and reliability of the spatial distance effect and the interaction of different representational levels in the context of multi-level theories of text comprehension.     

Temporal and spatial distance in situation models

In two experiments, we investigated how readers use information about temporal and spatial distance to focus attention on the more important parts of the situation model that they create during narrative comprehension. Effects of spatial distance were measured by testing the accessibility in memory of objects and rooms located at differing distances from the protagonist's current location. Before the test probe, an intervening episode was inserted in the narrative. Story time distance was manipulated by stating that the intervening episode lasted for either minutes or hours. Discourse time--that is, time spent reading from prime to test--was manipulated by describing the intervening episode either briefly or at length. Clear effects of story time distance and spatial distance on accessibility were found, whereas discourse time distance did not affect accessibility. The results are interpreted as supporting constructionist theories of text comprehension.     

Generalization and similarity in exemplar models of categorization: Insights from machine learning

Exemplar theories of categorization depend on similarity for explaining subjects’ ability to generalize to new stimuli. A major criticism of exemplar theories concerns their lack of abstraction mechanisms and thus, seemingly, of generalization ability. Here, we use insights from machine learning to demonstrate that exemplar models can actually generalize very well. Kernel methods in machine learning are akin to exemplar models and are very successful in real-world applications. Their generalization performance depends crucially on the chosen similarity measure. Although similarity plays an important role in describing generalization behavior, it is not the only factor that controls generalization performance. In machine learning, kernel methods are often combined with regularization techniques in order to ensure good generalization. These same techniques are easily incorporated in exemplar models. We show that the generalized context model (Nosofsky, 1986) and ALCOVE (Kruschke, 1992) are closely related to a statistical model called kernel logistic regression. We argue that generalization is central to the enterprise of understanding categorization behavior, and we suggest some ways in which insights from machine learning can offer guidance.     

Comparisons between exemplar similarity and mixed prototype models using a linearly separable category structure

Nosofsky and Zaki (2002) found that an exemplar similarity model provided better accounts of individual subject classification and generalization performance than did a mixed prototype model proposed by Smith and Minda (1998; Minda & Smith, 2001). However, these previous tests used a nonlinearly separable category structure. In the present work, the authors extend the previous findings by demonstrating a superiority for the exemplar generalization model over the mixed prototype model in a case involving a linearly separable structure. Because this structure has numerous features that Minda and Smith argued should be conducive to prototype-based processing, the results pose a significant challenge to the mixed prototype view.     

Discrimination is more closely associated with perceived similarity than with distance and color

Diverse factors affect perceived similarity and discrimination, with high perceived similarity associated with poor discrimination. To investigate this hypothesis, college students made speeded same-different discriminations between 2 achromatic colors when they were contiguous and separated, did the same with 2 chromatic colors, and rated similarity. Compared with chromatic color, the separation for achromatic color impaired the performance on different stimuli more than on same stimuli with response bias controlled, which implied an increase in the perceived similarity of the discriminated stimuli, hurt overall performance, and elevated rated similarity. Thus, discrimination was more closely associated with 2 measures of perceived similarity than with distance and color, in support of the hypothesis.     

Great apes’ capacities to recognize relational similarity

Recognizing relational similarity relies on the ability to understand that defining object properties might not lie in the objects individually, but in the relations of the properties of various object to each other. This aptitude is highly relevant for many important human skills such as language, reasoning, categorization and understanding analogy and metaphor. In the current study, we investigated the ability to recognize relational similarities by testing five species of great apes, including human children in a spatial task. We found that all species performed better if related elements are connected by logico-causal as opposed to non-causal relations. Further, we find that only children above 4 years of age, bonobos and chimpanzees, unlike younger children, gorillas and orangutans display some mastery of reasoning by non-causal relational similarity. We conclude that recognizing relational similarity is not in its entirety unique to the human species. The lack of a capability for language does not prohibit recognition of simple relational similarities. The data are discussed in the light of the phylogenetic tree of relatedness of the great apes.     

Applicant–employee similarity and attraction to an employer

Considerable research has supported the similarity–attraction effect, wherein similarity on various dimensions predicts interpersonal attraction. The present study extended this notion to workplace attraction, by examining whether applicant similarity to prospective co‐workers enhances attraction to the potential employer. Similarity between college‐aged women and prototypical employees at well‐known retail stores was assessed. Both perceived similarity and prototype similarity predicted perceptions of employer attractiveness. Although perceived similarity produced larger effect sizes, prototype similarity showed promise as an indirect measure of person‐to‐person fit.