Previous experience with a series of stimuli may impede the adjustment of scales to a new series. The degree of resistance against change is governed by the experimental instructions. When asked to construct new scales, people are able to overcome the effects of the first series, though not completely (Parducci, Knobel and Thomas, 1976; Haubensak and Petzold, 2003). Another important variable may be prior knowledge and type of stimulus change. The two experiments reported here were designed to study the effects of these two variables. In either experiment the participants were divided into two groups, N and M. For Group N the first series consisted of eight small horizontal lines and the second consisted of eight large horizontal distances. For Group M, the first series consisted of the same eight lines but the second series was a mixture of those lines and the eight larger distances. Both lines and distances were to be judged on a 5-category scale according to size. Experiment 2 was identical with Experiment 1 except that the participants were informed about the nature of the change. We attributed the difference in the ratings between Groups N and M to the type of contextual change (New context versus Mixed context). Similarly, we attributed the difference in the ratings between Experiment 2 and 1 to the effect of prior knowledge. Results show also that the effect of prior knowledge is modulated by the type of contextual change.

Effect of prior stimulus information upon category ratings

TOMMASI, Marco
2003-01-01

Abstract

Previous experience with a series of stimuli may impede the adjustment of scales to a new series. The degree of resistance against change is governed by the experimental instructions. When asked to construct new scales, people are able to overcome the effects of the first series, though not completely (Parducci, Knobel and Thomas, 1976; Haubensak and Petzold, 2003). Another important variable may be prior knowledge and type of stimulus change. The two experiments reported here were designed to study the effects of these two variables. In either experiment the participants were divided into two groups, N and M. For Group N the first series consisted of eight small horizontal lines and the second consisted of eight large horizontal distances. For Group M, the first series consisted of the same eight lines but the second series was a mixture of those lines and the eight larger distances. Both lines and distances were to be judged on a 5-category scale according to size. Experiment 2 was identical with Experiment 1 except that the participants were informed about the nature of the change. We attributed the difference in the ratings between Groups N and M to the type of contextual change (New context versus Mixed context). Similarly, we attributed the difference in the ratings between Experiment 2 and 1 to the effect of prior knowledge. Results show also that the effect of prior knowledge is modulated by the type of contextual change.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11564/130563
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