Abstract
Pairs of 1-sec, 1,000-Hz tones, with interstimulus intervals of 1.5 sec, were judged by 60 subjects in categories of “louder,” “softer,” and “equal.” The judgments referred to the first tone in the pair for half of the subjects and to the second tone for the other half. Perceived loudness differences were scaled by a Thurstonian method. The SPL of the standard tone alternated between 50 and 70 dB in one experimental series and between 30 and 50 dB in the other. Time errors (TEs) were consistently positive (first tone overestimated relative to second) at the lower SPL and negative at the higher SPL. This “classical” effect of stimulus level on TE was thus shown to depend upon the relative, rather than the absolute, level of stimulation. The judgment mode was of very little consequence, which strongly contradicts TE theories that emphasize response-bias effects. The quantitative results are interpreted in terms of a general successive-comparison model employing the concepts of adaptation and differential weighting of sensation magnitudes.
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Hellström, A.On the nature of the time-error. Reports from the Department of Psychology, University of Stockholm, 1977, Suppl. 38.
Hellström, A.Differential sensation weighting as the basic cause of time-errors. Reports from the Department of Psychology, University of Stockholm, 1977, No. 498.
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This investigation was supported by the University of Stockholm, the Swedish Council for Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences, and the Swedish Council for Administrative Rationalization and Economy (computer time).
An erratum to this article is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/BF03199525.
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Hellström, Å. Factors producing and factors not producing time errors: An experiment with loudness comparisons. Perception & Psychophysics 23, 433–444 (1978). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03204147
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03204147