| Abstract: | Processes underlying judgments of absolute event frequency were investigated in 3 experiments. In all 3, word pairs consisting of a target (a category label, e.g., CITY) and context (a category exemplar, e.g., LONDON) were presented in a different or same-context study list. In the different context condition, each target was paired with a new context on each presentation; in the same-context condition, a target always appeared with the same context. Verbal protocols (Experiment 1) and response times (Experiments 2 and 3) indicate that multiple estimation strategies were used and that strategy selection was related to memory contents. In particular, different-context participants often enumerated, and same-context participants did not. Also, because range information only affected same-context estimates (Experiment 3), it appears that a numerical conversion process was necessary when nonenumeration strategies were used. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
