Abstract
The typical distance effect for comparative judgments about ordered information (faster responses for nonadjacent comparisons than for adjacent comparisons) has not been found in recent experiments on processing highly complex 12-term partial orders. However, the rather complicated training and testing procedures used in these studies may have contributed to this failure to observe typical distance effects. The present experiment investigated the pro cessing of a seven-term partial order in simpler experimental conditions similar to those employed in complete order studies. Results indicated that there were pronounced individual differences in encoding such information. Since only three subjects were judged to be using a valid representation of the partial order, no conclusions about the lack of distance effects in comparing partially ordered information could be drawn. Most subjects used memory repre sentations that removed some or all of the indeterminacy in the partial order. It was concluded that most people do not have a preconceived scheme for encoding partially ordered information.
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This research was presented at the annual meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association, May 1978, in Chicago, Illinois. The second author is now at Bell Laboratories, Indianapolis, Indiana.
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Griggs, R.A., Keen, D.M. & Warner, S.A. Encoding partially ordered information. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 15, 299–302 (1980). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03334539
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03334539