A psychophysical theory of intensity proportions,joint presentations,and matches

Empirically testable assumptions relate 3 psychophysical primitives: presentations of pairs of physical intensities (e.g., pure tones of the same frequency and phase to the 2 ears or 2 successive tones to both ears); a respondent's ordering of such signal pairs by perceived intensity (e.g., loudness); and judgments about 2 pairs of stimuli being related as some proportion (numerical factor, as in magnitude production). Explicit behavioral assumptions lead to 2 families of psychophysical functions, one corresponding to unbiased joint presentations and the other to biased ones. Under an invariance assumption, the psychophysical functions in the unbiased case are approximate power functions, and those in the biased case are exact power functions. A number of testable predictions are made. The mathematics involved draws from publications in utility theory and mathematics but with a reinterpretation of the primitives.     

The proximity structure of achromatic surface colors and the impossibility of asymmetric lightness matching

In asymmetric lightness matching tasks, observers sometimes report that they cannot achieve satisfactory matches between achromatic surfaces under different neutral illuminants. The surfaces appear different, yet no further adjustment of either surface improves the match. There are evident difficulties in interpreting data from a task that the observer cannot always do, and these difficulties likely affect the interpretation of a large number of previous studies. We investigated, as an alternative to asymmetric matching, the direct use of proximity judgments in the study of surface lightness perception. We asked observers to rate the perceived dissimilarity of pairs of achromatic surfaces that were placed in identical scenes and viewed under different neutral illuminants. We develop a parametric model that accurately predicts perceived dissimilarity in terms of physical light intensities and surface albedos. The parameters of this model are readily interpretable. In particular, the ratio of the influence of changes in illuminant intensity and changes in surface albedo is a measure of the extent to which the observer discounts the illuminant. Asymmetric lightness matching can be interpreted as an unachievable limiting case of proximity judgment.     

How lexical decision is affected by recent experience: Symmetric versus asymmetric frequency-blocking effects

In a lexical decision task (LDT) in which list composition is manipulated, a typical finding to date has been a slowdown for easy items (e.g., high-frequency words) but little speedup for hard items (e.g., low-frequency words) when they are mixed together. This asymmetric frequency-blocking effect contrasts with the symmetric pattern (both a speedup for hard items and a slowdown for easy items when they are mixed together) observed with the naming task. In the present study, we investigated the mechanism responsible for the asymmetric blocking effect in the LDT within a model of blocking effect proposed by Mozer, Kinoshita, and Davis (2003), termed the adaptation-to-the-statistics-of-the-environment (ASE) model. Experiments 1A and 1B showed that when the same high- and low-frequency words were used, consistent with the existing literature, an asymmetric blocking effect was found in the LDT and a symmetric blocking effect was found in the naming task. Within the ASE model, a symmetric versus asymmetric blocking effect can be explained in terms of different asymptotic rates in subjective estimates of error probability. Experiments 2 and 3 tested and confirmed a prediction of the model based on this assumption that a speedup of hard items would be observed in an LDT with hard items whose subjective error probability asymptotes near zero (low-frequency words with high familiarity ratings that subjects could be certain were words). Implications of the model for task differences in reaction times are discussed.     

Symmetric Propositions and Logical Quantifiers

Symmetric propositions over domain and signature are characterized following Zermelo, and a correlation of such propositions with logical type- quantifiers over is described. Boolean algebras of symmetric propositions over and Σ are shown to be isomorphic to algebras of logical type- quantifiers over . This last result may provide empirical support for Tarski’s claim that logical terms over fixed domain are all and only those invariant under domain permutations.     

Recognizing and localizing features in brief picture presentations

In two experiments, subjects saw a series of brief picture flashes, each followed by a 10-sec presentation of a small picture section. In Experiment 1, subjects were required to decide if the section had been part of the 100-msec picture presentation. Experiment 2 had 100-msec and 500-msec presentations, and the task was to indicate the location of the section in the picture. Both recognition and localization accuracy depended upon the rated informativeness of the probed section and the section's location with respect to point of focus. Performance on the recognition task was superior to that on the localization task, suggesting different rates of acquisition of identity and location information. The results were interpreted in terms of a model of picture perception based upon two kinds of processing: identification of individual objects and a holistic characterization of the scene. The results also have implications regarding the use of information in the guidance of initial eye fixations.     

The dynamics of intermodal matching: Seven- and 12-month-olds' intermodal matching of affect

The purpose of this experiment was to examine whether and how a common methodological difference frequently employed within the intermodal matching procedure affects infants' intermodal matching. Specifically we examined the effects of incorporating or excluding silent control trials on seven- and 12-month-olds' intermodal matching of affect. Results revealed that seven-month-olds showed reliable matching when presented all in-sound trials whereas 12-month-olds showed reliable matching when half of the trials were presented silently and half of the trials were presented in-sound. Results are discussed in terms of the dynamics of infant attention and those conditions where the inclusion of silent trials may be appropriate.     

Might-beliefs and asymmetric disagreement

Synthese - What we can call asymmetric disagreement occurs when one agent is in disagreement with another, but not vice-versa. In this paper, I give an example of and develop a framework for...     

Kasimir Twardowski on the content of presentations

In On the Content and Object of Presentations, Kasimir Twardowski presents an interesting line of thought concerning the content of a presentation and its relation to the object of that presentation. This way of thinking about content is valuable for understanding phenomenal intentionality, and it should also be important for the project of “naturalizing” the mental (or at least for discovering the neural correlates of the phenomenal). According to this view, content is that by virtue of which a presentation of an object presents a certain object and no other. In the cases in which an object is presented as simple, there is nothing more that can be said about the relation of content and object. It is sui generis: the relation of content to an object by virtue of which it presents that object. Further, the content of a presentation is never itself directly presented. The content can only be gotten at indirectly, as the content by which such and such object is presented. Where the presented object is complex—as is of course the normal case—a lot that is useful can be said about the structure of the content. In this paper, I lay out Twardowski's theory of the content of presentations. Since the business of content is to present its object, I briefly present the basics of Twardowski's mereology of objects.     

Context matching and judgments of recency

An experiment was done to test a context-matching explanation of memory for recency under steady-state conditions. Subjects went through a list of 550 names, in which individual names were repeated at lags of 5–30 other items. The names were shown in two different styles or contexts. An old versus new recognition decision was made on each name, and eachold response was followed by a numerical judgment of recency (JOR). When first- and second-presentation contexts were the same, recognition hit rates were higher, and mean JORs were shorter (more recent), than when the two contexts were different. The JOR result is as predicted by the context-matching hypothesis.     

Probability matching and strategy availability

Findings from two experiments indicate that probability matching in sequential choice arises from an asymmetry in strategy availability: The matching strategy comes readily to mind, whereas a superior alternative strategy, maximizing, does not. First, compared with the minority who spontaneously engage in maximizing, the majority of participants endorse maximizing as superior to matching in a direct comparison when both strategies are described. Second, when the maximizing strategy is brought to their attention, more participants subsequently engage in maximizing. Third, matchers are more likely than maximizers to base decisions in other tasks on their initial intuitions, suggesting that they are more inclined to use a choice strategy that comes to mind quickly. These results indicate that a substantial subset of probability matchers are victims of “underthinking” rather than “overthinking”: They fail to engage in sufficient deliberation to generate a superior alternative to the matching strategy that comes so readily to mind.     

Criterion adjustment and probability matching

Twenty subjects made all possible (136) pairwise-comparison judgments of pattern goodness between 17 five-dot patterns. Using multidimensional scaling and hierarchical clustering analyses, a two-dimensional representation was judged the most appropriate for the derived pattern space. The interpreted structure of the spatial-hierarchical configuration strongly supported previous findings that pattern redundancy is the most salient dimension underlying pattern goodness judgments and that patterns can be partitioned on this dimension according to the size of their equivalence sets, i.e., the number of patterns resulting from rigid rotations in 90-deg increments or reflection. A psychological mechanism that accounts for the effect of pattern redundancy on judged goodness was proposed.     

Semantics for Dual and Symmetric Combinatory Calculi

We define dual and symmetric combinatory calculi (inequational and equational ones), and prove their consistency. Then, we introduce algebraic and set theoretical– relational and operational – semantics, and prove soundness and completeness. We analyze the relationship between these logics, and argue that inequational dual logics are the best suited to model computation.     

Symmetric limiting distributions of response probabilities

Necessary and sufficient conditions for the symmetry of the limiting distributions of response probabilities are derived for the Bush and Mosteller two experimenter-controlled events learning model [Bush and Mosteller, 1955].     

Reliability of magnitude matching

In each of four experimental sessions, each of 16 subjects gave magnitude estimates of the taste intensities of NaCl and the loudness of noise on a single, common scale--the method of magnitude matching. In all sessions, the intensity levels of the noises were identical; but in two sessions, the concentrations of NaCl were low, and in two they were high. Cross-modality matches (magnitude matches) between NaCl and noise were derived from the judgments, revealing two main findings: First, given constant NaCl concentrations, individual subjects showed reliably different magnitude matches. Second, changing the NaCl concentrations (context) strongly affected the magnitude matches. These findings suggest that magnitude matching may be useful in assessing interindividual as well as intergroup differences, though caution must be taken to minimize effects of context: Context effects are pervasive; they suggest the presence of a complex relativistic process operating when people judge the intensities of qualitatively different stimuli.     

Autoshaping as a function of prior food presentations

Young chickens were given 1, 10, 100, or 1000 presentations of grain in a hopper. Subsequently, the key was illuminated before each presentation of grain to study autoshaping of the key-peck response. The number of keylight-grain pairings before a bird first pecked the lighted key was found to be a U-shaped function of the number of prior food-only presentations, with pecks occurring significantly sooner after 100 food-only trials than after any of the other values. Two of five chicks at the 100-trial value pecked on the first illumination of the key. Experiment II showed further that when a series of food-only trials (no keylight) preceded keylight-only trials (no food) 30% of the chicks pecked the illuminated key. Experiment III extended the generality of first-trial pecking to pigeons. After preliminary training with food-only, two of five pigeons pecked on the first illumination of a key. The results suggest a close relationship between autoshaping and pseudo-conditioning.     

Comparisons of learning procedures: Effects of constant and random presentations

The retention interval hypothesis (Izawa 1972) was formulated on the basis of retention interval distributions given in random order to account for inconsistent performance differences between anticipation and study-test procedures, which have been regarded as a puzzle for nearly two decades. Under the anticipation procedure a presentation of the stimulus term of a paired-associate (a test event) is immediately followed by a presentation of both stimulus and response terms of the pair (a study event), whereas under the study-test procedure, study and test events are given on separate cycles. The retention interval hypothesis was specifically tested in a situation without any random distributions of the retention intervals i.e., under a constant item presentation order from cycle to cycle, in addition to random presentation orders, in a paired-associate learning experiment, using 80 college students. As predicted by the theory, significantly superior performances were obtained for the study-test method vis-à-vis the anticipation method also under a constant item presentation order. The constant presentation-order- arrangements significantly outperformed the random ones. Directions for further theoretical elaborations are suggested.