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Shifts in Postdiscrimination Gradients Within a Stimulus Dimension Based on Female Waist-to-Hip Ratios

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Abstract

Fifteen participants were trained on a within-subjects basis with two discrimination training conditions and one simple generalization training (control) condition to determine whether gradient shifts can be obtained within a stimulus dimension consisting of women’s waist-to-hip ratios (WHRs). In one discrimination condition, the S− consisted of the “optimal” WHR; in the other, the S− consisted of the approximate mean WHR for adult women. For all three conditions, the S+ was an intermediate value. Under both discrimination training conditions, the generalization gradient was observed to shift away from the S− and toward extreme values on the opposite end of the dimension; under the control condition, the gradient was more closely centered on the S+. The results suggest that the processes involved in gradient shifts can affect judgments of biologically significant stimuli.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of North Dakota, P.O. Box 8380, Grand Forks, North Dakota, 58202-8380, USA

    Adam Derenne, R. Michael Breitstein & Rebecca J. Cicha

Authors
  1. Adam Derenne
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  2. R. Michael Breitstein
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  3. Rebecca J. Cicha
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Correspondence to Adam Derenne.

Additional information

This material is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 01322899. Thanks are extended to Brittany Bechthold, Karla Fehr, and Carmen Schanilec for assisting with data collection.

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Derenne, A., Breitstein, R.M. & Cicha, R.J. Shifts in Postdiscrimination Gradients Within a Stimulus Dimension Based on Female Waist-to-Hip Ratios. Psychol Rec 58, 51–60 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03395602

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