Contrast, Assimilation, and the Effect of Central Tendency

Contrast of Kind Versus Contrast of Magnitude: The Pragmatic Accomplishments of Irony and Hyperbole

“…A long history of research on contrast and assimilation effects has shown that contrast effects are stronger and more robust than assimilation effects, which would be consistent with the findings on the tropes (Abele & Gendolla, 1999;Avant, 1971;Beck, 1966;Bevan & Turner, 1964;Campbell, Hunt, & Lewis, 1957;Erdley & D'Agostino, 1988;Herr, 1986;Herr, Sherman, & Fazio, 1983;Jordan & Haleblian, 1988;Jordan & Uhlarik, 1985;Judd, Kenny, & Krosnick, 1983;Lombardi, Higgins, & Bargh, 1987;Martin, Seta, & Crelia, 1990;McMullen, 1997;Moskowitz & Skurnik, 1999;Murakami & Shimojo, 1996;Newman & Uleman, 1990;Parducci & Marshall, 1962;Pelham & Wachsmuth, 1995;Sherif & Hovland, 1961;Sherif, Taub, & Hovland, 1958;Shigeno, 1991;Sugita, 1995;Watson, 1957;Wilson, 1972). For instance, contrasts of kind might make the referent catDownloaded by [University of California, San Francisco] at 08:11 29 March 2015 egory look especially negative because of a contrast effect.…”

The horizon line, linear perspective, interposition, and background brightness as determinants of the magnitude of the pictorial moon illusion

“…The central tendency effect may have once again contributed to this result. In addition, according to Watson (1957), when a participant is presented with a series of stimuli, such as in the case of the comparison sequences used in Experiments 1 and 2, the judgment of one stimulus in the series tends to be influenced by the other stimuli in the series. As such, if a comparison sequence with fewer small circles was presented first, participants may have judged those circles to be larger overall than the circles in the comparison sequence from which large circles were omitted.…”

Influences of internal and external frames of reference on the formation of math and English self-concepts.

“…The study by Strang, Smith and Rogers (1978), for example, implied that academically disadvantaged children who attended some classes with other disadvantaged children and other classes with nondisadvantaged children had multiple frames of reference. In another example from psychophysical research, Watson (1957) asked subjects to judge the size of circles that also differed in color such that circles of one color (e.g., yellow) were systematically larger than those of a second color (e.g., green). After a preliminary series of 100 trials in which subjects compared yellow circles to other yellow circles and green circles to other green circles, they were then asked to compare yellow and green circles that were identical in size.…”