Reinstating the original principles of Proctor's unified theory for matching-task phenomena: An evaluation of Krueger and Shapiro's reformulation.

L. E. Krueger and R. G. Shapiro (see record 1982-02747-001) have reformulated R. W. Proctor's (see record 1981-24888-001) unified theory for matching-task phenomena by replacing his inhibition principle with Krueger's (see record 1979-22735-001) internal noise (IN) principle and altering Proctor's facilitation principle from one of sensitivity change to one of criterion change. The present article examines both of these modifications and concludes that they are unwarranted. The IN principle is shown to rely on several unjustified assumptions, the most critical of which seems to render it incapable of explaining the "same–different" RT disparity for which it was developed. On the other hand, empirical evidence for the inhibition principle is shown to be considerably more substantial than acknowledged by Krueger and Shapiro. An examination of facilitation indicates that although it can occur through either sensitivity or criterion changes, the former apparently predominates in the standard matching-task situation. (57 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)