Adaptive decision processes in perceptual comparisons: Effects of changes in global difficulty context. |
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Authors: | Baranski, Joseph V. Petrusic, William M. |
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Abstract: | Adaptive decision processes were investigated in experiments involving an unexpected change in the global ease or difficulty of the task. Under accuracy stress, a shift from an easy to a difficult context induced a marked increase in decision time, but a shift from a difficult to an easy context did not. Under speed stress, a shift to a more difficult context induced lower accuracy and rated confidence, depending on the difficulty of the decisions. A view of caution developed in D. Vickers's (1979) accumulator theory--whereby one seeks to base decisions on more information--is compared with a view based on slow and fast guessing theory (W. M. Petrusic, 1992; W. M. Petrusic & J. V. Baranski, 1989a)--whereby one seeks to base decisions on more diagnostic information. On balance, the findings support the latter view. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
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Keywords: | adaptive decision processes visual perceptual comparison global task difficulty context context change decision time |
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