等级评定量表的最佳反应项数目:来自眼动研究的证据

在心理学研究中,等级评定量表是研究数据的常用测量工具。然而,研究者们使用的等级评定量表的版式并不一致,尤其表现在使用的反应项的数目不同。关于最佳反应项数目的研究只局限于从被试的最终反应结果来进行分析,而没有从被试对量表的反应过程来进行分析。根据前人相关文献,设计6种反应项的量表,并通过眼动实验来测量被试的信息处理过程。通过对反应时、净默认反应方式、极端反应方式和选项比例变化的综合比较,我们得出最佳的量表反应项数目是5。     

Repetition of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ responses with a different number of response alternatives in study and test trial

The reinforcement values of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ upon subsequent repetition of the response have been explained by the subject's independent memory for his previous response and its outcome ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. Detailed analyses on the data of recent experiments suggest that an increasing number of response alternatives for each stimulus makes the recall of the response and the outcome ‘right’ no longer independent. Therefore it was predicted that for a given number of response alternatives at the Test Trial, the likelihood that a subject will repeat a response called ‘right’ at the study Trial will be a function of the number of response alternatives at the Study Trial. The results were confirmatory. The explanation of these results was based on there being a larger informational value in the outcome ‘right’ with an increasing number of response alternatives.     

Context effects in multi-alternative decision making: empirical data and a Bayesian model

For decisions between many alternatives, the benchmark result is Hick's Law: that response time increases log-linearly with the number of choice alternatives. Even when Hick's Law is observed for response times, divergent results have been observed for error rates-sometimes error rates increase with the number of choice alternatives, and sometimes they are constant. We provide evidence from two experiments that error rates are mostly independent of the number of choice alternatives, unless context effects induce participants to trade speed for accuracy across conditions. Error rate data have previously been used to discriminate between competing theoretical accounts of Hick's Law, and our results question the validity of those conclusions. We show that a previously dismissed optimal observer model might provide a parsimonious account of both response time and error rate data. The model suggests that people approximate Bayesian inference in multi-alternative choice, except for some perceptual limitations.     

Response selection in paired-associate learning

Ss were presented pairs of items on study cycles; on test cycles Ss were presented the stimulus items and required either to recall the correct response or to indicate the correct response from three alternatives. It was demonstrated that Ss who chose the correct responses from the alternatives tended to select from both stimulus and response compounds so that the association was between stimulus and response components. The amount of selection from the response compounds was comparable to that from the stimulus compounds.     

Choice among two and three alternatives

Although choice between two alternatives has been widely researched, fewer studies have examined choice across multiple (more than two) alternatives. Past models of choice behavior predict that the number of alternatives should not affect relative response allocation, but more recent research has found violations of this principle. Five pigeons were presented with three concurrently scheduled alternatives. Relative reinforcement rates across these alternatives were assigned 9:3:1. In some conditions three keys were available; in others, only two keys were available. The number of available alternatives did not affect relative response rates for pairs of alternatives; there were no significant differences in behavior between the two and three key conditions. For two birds in the three‐alternative conditions and three birds in the two‐alternative conditions, preference was more extreme for the pair of alternatives with the lower overall pairwise reinforcer rate (3:1) than the pair with higher overall reinforcer rate (9:3). However, when responding during the changeover was removed three birds showed the opposite pattern in the three‐alternative conditions; preference was more extreme for the pair of alternatives with the higher overall reinforcer rate. These findings differ from past research and do not support established theories of choice behavior.     

What mediates the impact of response alternatives on frequency reports of mundane behaviors?

Previous research demonstrated that respondents assume that the range of precoded response alternatives reflects the researcher's knowledge of the distribution of opinions or behaviours in the population. This assumption may influence respondents' reports in two ways: respondents may either use the range of the response alternatives as a frame of reference in estimating their own behavioural frequencies, or they may be reluctant to report frequencies that appear extreme in the context of the scale. Three experiments using reports of mundane behaviours, namely watching TV and drinking beer, were conducted to differentiate between the frame of reference and the self-presentation hypothesis. The results of all studies favour the frame of reference hypothesis, and suggest that the impact of response alternatives is the more pronounced the less episodic information about the behaviour is accessible in memory. Specifically, proxy-reports were found to be more affected by the range of response alternatives than self-reports (Experiments 1 and 2), and respondents with dispositionally low access to self-related information were found to be more affected than respondents with dispositionally high access to self-related information (Experiment 3). Implications for questionnaire construction are discussed.     

Information processing by performers and observers in a paired associate learning task

The effects of two training procedures on learning and performance are compared. Performers select a response alternative for each stimulus on Trial 1 and receive feedback in terms of “Right” or “Wrong”. Observers receive the same information by listening to the experimenter. Experiment I tests the hypothesis that performers and observers are using a different learning strategy when there are only two response alternatives available for each stimulus on Trial 1. A recognition procedure was used on Trial 2; each stimulus was followed by four alternatives, two of them being the same as presented on Trial 1. Subjects have to recognize the two “old” alternatives. Performers are always better at recognizing the chosen alternative, whereas observers are better at recognizing the correct alternative. Experiment II extends the comparison between performers and observers to a task with four response alternatives on Trial 1. There are no longer differences in performance between the two training procedures.     

Choosing among multiple alternatives: Relative and overall reinforcer rates

Choice behavior among two alternatives has been widely researched, but fewer studies have examined the effect of multiple (more than two) alternatives on choice. Two experiments investigated whether changing the overall reinforcer rate affected preference among three and four concurrently scheduled alternatives. Experiment 1 trained six pigeons on concurrent schedules with three alternatives available simultaneously. These alternatives arranged reinforcers in a ratio of 9:3:1 with the configuration counterbalanced across pigeons. The overall rate of reinforcement was varied across conditions. Preference between the pair of keys arranging the 9:3 reinforcer ratio was less extreme than the pair arranging the 3:1 reinforcer ratio regardless of overall reinforcer rate. This difference was attributable to the richer alternative receiving fewer responses per reinforcer than the other alternatives. Experiment 2 trained pigeons on concurrent schedules with four alternatives available simultaneously. These alternatives arranged reinforcers in a ratio of 8:4:2:1, and the overall reinforcer rate was varied. Next, two of the alternatives were put into extinction and the random interval duration was changed from 60 s to 5 s. The ratio of absolute response rates was independent of interval length across all conditions. In both experiments, an analysis of sequences of visits following each reinforcer showed that the pigeons typically made their first response to the richer alternative irrespective of which alternative was just reinforced. Performance on these three‐ and four‐alternative concurrent schedules is not easily extrapolated from corresponding research using two‐alternative concurrent schedules.     

A Market Response Model for Sales Management Decision Making

Abstract

Sales managers are faced with a variety of decisions that require the evaluation of the probable response of the market to feasible decision alternatives. A conceptual model of market response is presented to offer management a framework for understanding the market response relationships in their selling situation and to provide an operational approach for evaluating the potential effect of decision alternatives. An empirical test illustrates the usefulness of the model and suggests several improvements in market response modeling. Future research directions are identified and important management implications are discussed.     

Precueing response factors in choice reaction time: a word of caution

This note discusses the assumption researchers make when movement attributes are precued in a choice reaction time (RT) paradigm-i.e., that the precue only reduces the number of response alternatives, so that changes in RT reflect the programming time for the unprecued attributes. However, it is argued that since the precue reduces the number of stimulus alternatives, changes in RT reflect changes in both stimulus processing and response programming. Therefore, the interpretation made by Klapp (1977), using the precue paradigm, that response selection and response timing are not independent sequential stages in the programming sequence, is not necessarily correct.     

Precueing Response Factors in Choice Reaction Time

This note discusses the assumption researchers make when movement attributes are precued in a choice reaction time (RT) paradigm—i.e., that the precue only reduces the number of response alternatives, so that changes in RT reflect the programming time for the unprecued attributes. However, it is argued that since the precue reduces the number of stimulus alternatives, changes in RT reflect changes in both stimulus processing and response programming. Therefore, the interpretation made by Klapp (1977), using the precue paradigm, that response selection and response timing are not independent sequential stages in the programming sequence, is not necessarily correct.     

Mechanisms for precuing superiority in visual recognition

Superior recognition, when similar alternatives are studied prior to brief target pictures of common objects, is usually attributed to selective feature analysis, which is beneficial only when the target is not readily discriminable in the alternatives. The present study found equal precuing superiority, however, for similar and dissimilar alternatives with abstract geometric stimuli, and with pictures of common objects, precuing superiority occurred only when each alternative represented the same semantic category. Precuing effects did not appear when different categories were represented in the alternatives, and performance was similar to other conditions in which only a categorical match between target and alternatives was possible. These results suggest that selective feature analysis and precuing superiority only occur when the target cannot be identified by its semantic category. With dissimilar alternatives activation of the target's category can be used to select a response, and there is no benefit from precuing.     

Differential construal and the false consensus effect

People's own beliefs, values, and habits tend to bias their perceptions of how widely they are shared. The present research examined whether this "false consensus effect" is partly due to people's failure to recognize that their choices are not solely a function of the "objective" response alternatives, but of their subjective construal of those alternatives. Study 1 provided initial support for the importance of differential construal in people's consensus estimates by showing that larger false consensus effects tend to be obtained on items that permit the most latitude for subjective construal. Study 2 replicated this effect experimentally by asking Ss either a general or specific version of the same question. Larger false consensus effects were obtained on the general version that offered more latitude for construal. Studies 3 & 4 provided further support by showing that (a) Ss who made different choices tended to interpret the response alternatives in ways that reflected the choices they made and (b) subjects who were led to construe the alternatives in the same way tended to make the same choices.     

Response scales as frames of reference: The impact of frequency range on diagnostic judgements

In social and psychological research, respondents are often asked to report the frequency of a behaviour by checking the appropriate alternative from a list of response categories provided to them. Previous research indicated that respondents extract comparison information from the range of the response alternatives, assuming that the average respondent is represented by values in the middle range of the scale, and that the extremes of the scale represent the extremes of the distribution. Extending this line of research, the present studies demonstrate that the users of a respondent's report are also likely to use the range of the response alternatives as a frame of reference in evaluating the implications of the report. Specifically, subjects are found to draw different conclusions about the respondent's personality (Experiment l ), or the severity of his or her medical condition (Experiment 21, from the same absolute frequency report, depending upon the range of the response scale on which the frequency was checked. Moreover, experienced medical doctors were as likely to be influenced by scale range as first-year medical students, suggesting that the phenomenon is of considerable applied importance. Implications for the use of response alternatives in psychological research and diagnostic judgement are discussed.     

Multiple bottlenecks in information processing? An electrophysiological examination

When two stimuli are to be processed in rapid succession, reaction time (RT) to the second stimulus is delayed. The slowing of RT has been attributed to a single processing bottleneck at response selection (RS) or to a central bottleneck following the initiation of the first response. The hypothesis of a response initiation bottleneck is mainly based on reports of underadditive interactions between stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) and the number of stimulus—response alternatives (simple vs. two-choice response). The present study tested the hypothesis of a response initiation bottleneck by recording the lateralized readiness potential (LRP), a brain wave, emerging during or immediately following RS. The LRP findings were consistent with a central bottleneck but did not support the late bottleneck hypothesis. Instead, the LRP provided direct evidence that the underadditive interaction of number of alternatives and SOA is due to an increase of response anticipations in the simple response condition.     

A note on the use of rank-ordered logit models for ordered response categories

Models for rankings have been shown to produce more efficient estimators than comparable models for first/top choices. The discussions and applications of these models typically only consider unordered alternatives. But these models can be usefully adapted to the case where a respondent ranks a set of ordered alternatives that are ordered response categories. This paper proposes eliciting a rank order that is consistent with the ordering of the response categories, and then modelling the observed rankings using a variant of the rank ordered logit model where the distribution of rankings has been truncated to the set of admissible rankings. This results in lower standard errors in comparison to when only a single top category is selected by the respondents. And the restrictions on the set of admissible rankings reduces the number of decisions needed to be made by respondents in comparison to ranking a set of unordered alternatives. Simulation studies and application examples featuring models based on a stereotype regression model and a rating scale item response model are provided to demonstrate the utility of this approach.     

An additive factors analysis of the effect(s) of location cues associated with auditory stimuli on stages of information processing

The additive factors method (AFM) was used as a tool for assessing the locus (or loci) of the detrimental effect of auditory location cues in the chain of (visual) information processing. In the first experiment the location variable was factorially combined with response specificity, which is assumed to affect the response adjustment stage. A second experiment was performed in which movement amplitude, assumed to affect the response programming stage, was manipulated in addition to the location variable and a different variety of response specificity. Finally, the location variable was combined with relative S-R frequency, which is also assumed to affect the response programming stage, in a third experiment. The results of these experiments showed additive effects of the location variable with motor variables. The remaining two experiments were designed to assess the effects of location cues on response selection. In these experiments the location variable was combined with the number of response alternatives. Response speed decreased with an increase in the number of response alternatives. However, the effects of the location variable and number of response alternatives were additive. According to the additive factor logic, then, the results of experiments 1, 2 and 3 seem to indicate that the locus of interference of the location cues is not in the later response stages of the reaction process. The results of the last two experiments were interpreted to suggest that the effects of location cues and the number of response alternatives affect either different processes within the response selection stage or affect different process stages. It was concluded that the latter alternative explains most of the data currently available and that the stimulus identification stage is the most likely candidate for the locus of the location effect.     

Everybody Will Win,and All Must Be Hired: Comparing Additivity Neglect with the Nonselective Superiority Bias

Two streams of research looking at referent‐dependent judgments from slightly different angles are subadditivity research and research on the nonselective superiority bias. Both biases violate basic formal constraints: the probabilities of a set of exclusive events cannot add up to more than 100%, and a set of attractive candidates cannot all be rated as superior to the group mean. We examine in three experiments how these two biases are related, by asking the same participants to perform both kinds of tasks on the same material. Both biases appear to be widespread, even for sets where all alternatives are presented together, but they differ in the way they are affected by response format and experimental setup. Thus, presenting participants with an unbiased set of ratings will reduce but not normalize their probability estimates of the same alternatives; while presenting them with an unbiased (additive) set of probabilities will make most alternatives appear inferior to the group mean, inverting the superiority bias. Self‐reports reveal that additivity neglect and the nonselective superiority bias can be based on two main response‐strategies: (i) considering each alternative independently or (ii) comparing alternatives, while neglecting their complementarity. In both cases, assessments will be the outcome of a compromise between the perceived “absolute” merits of each alternative, its standing relative to referents, and properties of the response scale. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Choices and preferences: Evidence from implicit choices and response times

We present a new experimental paradigm where choice-induced preference change is measured for alternatives which are never compared directly, but rather confronted with other alternatives in a way which keeps choices predictable without exogenously manipulating them. This implicit-choice design improves on the free-choice paradigm, avoiding the recently criticized selection bias. Rating and ranking spreads in two experiments show that preference-based choices feed back into and alter preferences even if choices are not directly among similarly evaluated alternatives. In agreement with recent brain-imaging evidence, response time measurements for direct choice pairs in our experiments indicate that reappraisal processes are already triggered during decision making, with larger post-choice spreads (sharper attitude change) being associated to quicker decisions.