The familiarity effect for single-letter pairs.

Ambler, Bruce A.; Proctor, Janet D.

doi:10.1037/0096-1523.2.2.222

Cited by 27 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 10 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…That is, the "up" shape was a standard triangle, which was a more familiar stimulus than the alternative upsidedown triangle (the "down" shape). This finding is analogous to studies of same-different RT that have demonstrated significantly faster RTs to upright than to inverted numerals (Friden, 1973), trigrams (Egeth & Blecker, 1971), and letters (Ambler & Proctor, 1976;Egeth & Blecker, 1971). In the current study, a 70/30 frequency imbalance that favored the less familiar stimulus neutralized the familiarity effect; and when the less familiar stimulus occurred on 90070 of the trials, naming RT was actually faster to the inverted triangle than the upright triangle.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 73%

Latencies to name one of three stimulus dimensions: A study of probability effects and dimension integrality

Geller

1977

Perception & Psychophysics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Following each of 400 stimuli that varied according to three binary dimensions (location, color, and shape), subjects named the value of one particular dimension as quickly as possible. Each stimulus appeared on the "left" and "right" side of a screen (location dimension), and was a "red" or "green" triangle (color dimension) with apex oriented "up" or "down" (shape dimension). The alternatives of each dimension varied according to different probability distributions (90/10, 70130, or 50/50), and three schedule conditions were contrived so that each distribution occurred once for each dimension. Nine groups of 10 subjects each defined the factorial of 3 (response conditions: identify location, color, or shape) by 3 (schedule conditions: 90 left/70 red/50 down, 70 left/50 red/90 down, or 50 left/90 red/70 down). Latencies to identify the shape dimension were influenced reliably by the probabilities of both response-relevant and responseirrelevant stimuli. Shape probabilities did not affect latencies to identify location of color, but these latencies were significantly influenced by both color and location probabilities. Results are discussed with reference to the locus of the stimulus probability effect and dimensional integrality.Perhaps the most common finding when measuring latencies between stimulus presentations and identification responses is that choice reaction time (RT) is significantly shorter to more frequently occurring stimuli. The phenomenon has been termed a "stimulus probability effect" (SPE); and although the SPE has been consistently observed, interpretations of the cognitive locus of the phenomenon have not been consistent. Specifically, some RT investigators have claimed that the SPE is largely a responsebias effect, resulting from differential response selection (e.g., Theios, 1973Theios, , 1975, whereas others have presumed that variations in stimulus frequency affect primarily the stimulus-encoding stage of information processing (e.g., Pachella, 1974;Pachella & Miller, 1976). The present RT experiment was partially designed to study the relative importance of stimulus-encoding processes in determining the SPE.Three general techniques have been used to compare the relative influence of stimulus and response processing in determining the SPE: (1) threestimulus, two-response paradigms, (2) additivefactor designs, and (3) S-R compatibility manipulations. Although a given experiment has often showed Portions of this paper were presented at the Midwestern Psychological Association meeting, Chicago, 1975. Requests for reprints should be sent to E. Scott Geller, Department of Psychology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061. 70one information-processing component to be the more significant determinant of the SPE, the particular component judged to be the prominent factor has varied between experiments. For example, when RT was faster to the more probable of two stimuli identified with the same response, Bertleson and Tisseyre (1966) concluded that stimul...

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 73%

Latencies to name one of three stimulus dimensions: A study of probability effects and dimension integrality

Geller

1977

Perception & Psychophysics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Discussion A preliminary point that must be discussed concerns the opportunity of including the upright position in the analyses. Previous studies have shown that this orientation yields the fastest RTs even if the subjects are not required to rotate the letters mentally (see Ambler & Proctor, 1976;Cooper & Shepard, 1973a;Egeth & Blecker, 1971;Kolers & Perkins, 1969). It seems that congruence with an overlearned familiar orientation favorably affects the encoding time common to every stimulus irrespective of any subsequent process of transformation.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transformation processes upon the visual code

Simion

Bagnara

Roncato

et al. 1982

Perception & Psychophysics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Seven experiments investigated whether orientation-dependent latency functions for the visual code resemble those observed in studies of mental rotations of visual images. The subjects were required to perform "same-different" classifications of two simultaneously presented letters. The dependent variables considered were reaction time (RT) and accuracy. Experiments 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6 showed that subjects could correctly classify two different letters on the basis of the visual code without preceding transformations. Experiments 1,2, and 7 showed orientationdependent effects for "same" responses. It appeared, however, that orientation functions for the visual code were clearly different from those previously observed for visual images. In addition, the findings of Experiments 4,5, and 6 indicated that a frame that jointly rotated with the disoriented letters could eliminate the orientation-dependent effects for "same" responses. Experiment 7 showed that the results of Experiments 4, 5, and 6 must be attributed to the structural characteristics of the frame and not to a directional cue. The results of Experiment 3 seemed to demonstrate that transformations did not occur when the subjects used the phonetic code to classify the letters. Overall, the results of the seven experiments were considered to provide a demonstration of the importance of the distinction between the operations on visual images and those on the visual code.

show abstract

“…Assim, um menor tempo corresponde a um melhor desempenho. Numa situação de busca assimétrica, a inversão de papéis entre o estímulo-alvo e os estímulos distraidores, provoca uma grande diferença no desempenho, o que pode ser analisado em função da familiaridade do estímulo (6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12) . O efeito de assimetria foi encontrado nesse estudo, sendo mais fácil encontrar uma letra espelhada entre as letras em sua forma normal, que o oposto.…”

Section: Discussionunclassified

“…Esse é um exemplo de busca assimétrica, onde a troca de papéis entre o estímulo alvo e o distraidor provoca uma diferença na eficiência da busca (5) . Estudos de busca assimétrica com letras espelhadas ou invertidas e letras normais são os mais utilizados para descrever o efeito da familiaridade e da novidade sobre a eficiência (6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12) . No entanto, ainda não há um consenso se a assimetria da busca, nesses casos, ocorre devido à familiaridade dos distraidores, à novidade do alvo ou em função de ambos.…”

Section: Introductionunclassified