Stochastic interactive processes and the effect of context on perception

The effects of context on perceptual identification responses given without time pressure are well-described by classical models in which contextual and stimulus information exert independent effects. A recent article by Massaro (1989) raises the possibility that interactive models, such as the TRACE model of speech perception, are inherently incompatible with these classical context effects. The present article shows that this incompatibility hypothesis can be rejected. Mathematical analysis and computer simulation methods are used to show that interactive models can exhibit the classical effects of context, if there is variability in the input to the network or if there is intrinsic variability in the network itself. A variety of interactive models which incorporate variability can all produce the classical context effects, at least under some conditions; the conditions are rather general in the case of one of the variants. The findings suggest that interactive models should not be viewed as alternatives to classical accounts, but as hypotheses about the dynamics of information processing that lead to the global asymptotic behavior that the classical models describe.