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Why is accurately labelling simple magnitudes so hard?

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posted on 2023-05-22, 21:44 authored by Donkin, C, Rae, B, Heathcote, A, Brown, SD
Absolute identi cation is a deceptively simple task that has been the focus of empirical investigation and theoretical speculation for more than half a century. Observers are shown a set of N stimuli varying on a single dimension (e.g., length or loudness) and each stimulus is given a label (e.g.,1; ::;N). They then attempt to identify stimuli presented one at at time by producing the associated label. Since Miller's (1956) seminal paper the puzzle of why people are severely limited in their capacity to accurately perform absolute identi cation has endured. Despite the apparent simplicity of absolute identi cation, many complicated and robust effects are observed in both response latency and accuracy, including capacity limitations, strong sequential effects and effects of the position of a stimulus within the set. Constructing a comprehensive theoretical account of these benchmark effects has proven difficult, and existing accounts all have shortcomings in one way or another. We review classical empirical findings, as well as some newer fi ndings that challenge existing theories. We then discuss a variety of theories, with a focus on the most recent proposals, make some broad conclusions about general classes of models, and discuss the challenges ahead for each class.

History

Publication title

Oxford Handbook of Computational and Mathematical Psychology

Editors

JR Busemeyer, JT Townsend, Z J Wang, & A Eidels

Pagination

1-32

ISBN

978-0-19-995799-6

Department/School

Tasmanian School of Medicine

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Place of publication

Oxford

Extent

17

Repository Status

  • Restricted

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