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Form and Objective of the Decision Rule in Absolute IdentificationIn several conditions of a line length identification experiment, the subjects' decision making strategies were systematically biased against the responses on the edges of the stimulus range. When the range and number of the stimuli were small, the bias caused the percentage of correct responses to be highest in the center and lowest on the extremes of the range. Two general classes of decision rules that would explain these results are considered. The first class assumes that subjects intend to adopt an optimal decision rule, but systematically misrepresent one or more parameters of the decision making context. The second class assumes that subjects use a different measure of performance than the one assumed by the experimenter: instead of maximizing the chances of a correct response, the subject attempts to minimize the expected size of the response error (a "fidelity criterion"). In a second experiment, extended experience and feedback did not diminish the bias effect, but explicitly penalizing all response errors equally, regardless of their size, did reduce or eliminate it in some subjects. Both results favor the fidelity criterion over the optimal rule.
Document ID
19990062735
Acquisition Source
Armstrong Flight Research Center
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Balakrishnan, J. D.
(Purdue Univ. West Lafayette, IN United States)
Date Acquired
August 19, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 1997
Publication Information
Publication: Perception and Psychophysics
Publisher: Psychonomic Society, Inc.
Volume: 59
Issue: 7
Subject Category
Behavioral Sciences
Report/Patent Number
H-2351
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NCC2-374
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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