Summary
Two experiments were conducted to test a model of how Ss perceive the similarities among different psychophysical tasks. The model states that task similarity depends upon the relative perceived accuracy demand (PAD) of each task, where PAD is the perceived number of different stimuli divided by the perceived number of acceptable responses for a single stimulus. The model was evaluated by having Ss estimate the upper and lower boundaries of the acceptable response range obtained by magnitude and category estimation. In addition, Ss in Exp. II estimated the number of different stimuli. Results supported the model insofar as it predicted the order of similarity among the psychophysical tasks along a single dimension. Less support was found for predictions of the detailed clustering of tasks.
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The first part of this work is described in Baird, Weissmann, and McHugo (1977)
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Baird, J.C., Szilagyi, P.G. Perception of psychophysical experiments. Psychol. Res 39, 325–343 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00308932
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00308932