Context and goodness in a focusing task

King, Michael C.; Crist, William B.; Lockhead, Gregory R.

doi:10.3758/bf03199885

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Rated similarity predicts performance on perceptual discriminations. Moreover, it predicts more accurately than attribute information and pattern goodness (e.g., King, Crist, & Lockhead, 1979;Lockhead & King, 1977;Monahan & Lockhead, 1977). Rated similarity also predicts performance on semantic discriminations (Hutchinson & Lockhead, 1977;King, Gruenewald, & Lockhead, 1978).…”

Section: Experiments 2 and Theories Of Anchor Effectsmentioning

confidence: 95%

Anchor research: Evidence for an increase in the perceived similarity of stimuli obtained with a speeded-response paradigm.

King¹

1983

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Perfor

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A set of tiny (T) and huge (H) anchor circles and a set of small (S) and large (L) intermediate circles were used. Trials with TT, HH, TH, and HT pairs were immediately and unexpectedly followed by single trials with SS, LL, SL, or LS pairs. In addition, the anchor and intermediate sets were interchanged. Subjects took longer to decide that unexpected SL and LS pairs were different, and they made no errors to unexpected SS and LL pairs. In contrast, subjects took less time to decide that unexpected SS and LL pairs were the same, and they frequently made errors to unexpected SL and LS pairs. Nonetheless, subjects' responses to the unexpected pairs of anchor circles were not similarly affected. Decision-criterion explanations can probably be discounted. Instead, the findings accord with earlier research suggesting that memory involving anchor stimuli increases the perceived similarity of intermediate and/or relatively similar stimuli. However, the present findings strongly suggest that memory altered the quality of sensory information at a perceptual level. This memorial influence seemingly occurred within about 400 msec. In one study, a set of large and huge circles replaced the small and large set, and similar results were found. This study relates to theories of anchor effects.

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Section: Experiments 2 and Theories Of Anchor Effectsmentioning

confidence: 95%

Anchor research: Evidence for an increase in the perceived similarity of stimuli obtained with a speeded-response paradigm.

King¹

1983

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Perfor

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“…Lockhead and King (1977) have indeed shown with similarity ratings of some stimuli for which the concept of goodness is meaningful that good patterns are more isolated than poor patterns. More recently, King, Crist, and Lockhead (1979) demonstrated that under certain conditions similarity relations can predict RT for such patterns.…”

Section: Goodness and Similarity Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stimulus-specific processing consequences of pattern goodness

Sebrechts

Garner

1981

Memory & Cognition

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Two issues concerning the effects of visual pattern goodness on information processing time were investigated: the role of memory vs. encoding and the role of individual stimulus goodness vs. stimulus similarity. A sequential "same-different" task was used to provide differentiation of target item or memory effects from display item or encoding effects. Experiment 1 used four alternative stimuli in each block of trials. The results showed that good patterns were processed faster than poor patterns for both "same" and "different" responses. Furthermore, the goodness of the target item had a greater effect on reaction time than did the goodness of the display item, indicating that memory is more important than encoding in producing faster processing of good stimuli. Effects of interstimulus similarity on processing time were minimal, although isolation of good stimuli in a similarity space could explain many of the results. Experiment 2 replicated the results of Experiment 1, despite the fact that differences in similarity space had been minimized by using only two alternative stimuli in each block. In addition, the speed of processing a "same" pair was essentially independent of the particular alternative stimulus in a block. These results suggest that in this task, there is a processing advantage for good stimuli that is stimulus specific, with the effect operating primarily in memory.It is widely recognized that the structure of visual objects affects phenomenal experience, although the precise nature of that effect is not fully known. The Gestalt psychologists made substantial progress in understanding these experiences by enumerating characteristics of patterns that made them perceptually "good." More recently, Garner (1962) indicated how such goodness might be related to stimulus information and redundancy. He suggested that for a given pattern, the number of equivalent patterns provided a useful index of what constitutes a good figure: The fewer the number of equivalent patterns, the better the given pattern will be.For experimental purposes, rotations and reflections serve as one useful specification of equivalent patterns. If rotating and/or reflecting a pattern yields the same pattern, the number of equivalent patterns is one and the pattern is good; if rotating or reflecting a pattern yields several different patterns, the number of equivalent patterns is larger and the pattern is poorer. Garner and Clement (1963) showed that this definition was highly correlated with the way people rate goodness, thus providing a well-defined means of specifying a good or a poor pattern independent of subjective ratings. Processing Consequences of GoodnessUsing a variety of information processing tasks, it has been found that good patterns are processed more efficiently than poor patterns, as measured by time or by errors. Since it has been shown that there exists a reliable processing advantage for good patterns, recent research has been primarily concerned with establishing the nature of that effect. In particular, t...

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