Cary Jensen

Phonological priming in the lexical decision task: A failure to replicate.

Some models of the lexicon predict that recognition of words should produce activation spreading to phonologically related words. Consistent with this prediction, Hillinger (1980) demonstrated priming in a visual lexical decision task for word targets preceded by graphemically similar or graphemically dissimilar primes that rhymed with the target. In Experiment 1, we investigated whether this phonological priming effect occurred automatically or because of subject strategies. Although semantically associated primes produced significant facilitation in Experiment 1, no evidence of phonological priming was obtained. Experiments 2 to 5 were conducted in an attempt to obtain the phonological priming effect. Experiment 5 was a replication of one of Hillinger’s experiments. In none of these experiments was phonological priming observed. These results indicate either that the lexicon is not organized such that spreading activation occurs on the basis of phonological similarity, or that visual lexical decisions are made without phonological mediation.

Multiple interference effects in short-term recognition memory.

Five experiments, using a probe recognition procedure, examined the codes involved in short-term memory. Interference effects were obtained for probes with an orthographic, associative, or semantic relationship to a memory set item. The orthographic interference effects appeared to result from matches on the basis of abstract letter codes (i.e., graphemes) rather than overlap of visual features. The associative and semantic effects differed from what might be predicted on the basis of spreading activation, suggesting that these effects are qualitatively different from semantic priming effects observed in lexical decision tasks. These results support models of short-term memory in which items are represented as groups of features and recognition depends on a comparison of the features of the probe to those of the memory set items.

Diagnostic Judgment as a Function of the Preprocessing of Evidence

An experiment was conducted to determine how the quality of a human judgment (in this case, military threat diagnosis) is affected by various levels of preprocessing applied to the raw predictive events when such processing is carried out by the human and by a machine aid. Subjects were required to estimate the threat of attack on the friendly position (criterion) based on observed activity levels (cues) and designated threat potential weights of various enemy positions. Overall threat judgments were made under conditions in which a prior overt estimate of position activity levels was or was not required. Machine-aiding conditions were as follows: (1) no aiding, where subjects simply observed raw events in real time, (2) automatic tabulation of events, and (3) automatic computation of events. Finally, the rate of event occurrences was manipulated. When subjects made overall criterion judgments (threat evaluation) intuitively on the basis of events observed in real time, their performance improved markedly by interposing cue estimation, even if cue estimation was fairly inaccurate. If events were computed automatically, permitting a more analytic threat judgment, performance improved and the redundant estimation step was not helpful. If events were merely tabulated, estimation was helpful, but to an extent midway between the raw-observation and automatic computation conditions.

Comparing Three-Dimensional Representations of Data to Scatterplots

Jensen (1985) described a method for presenting data in a three-dimensional format that would typically be presented in a scatterplot. The present paper compared these two methods of presenting data. Twenty-four subjects, all of whom had completed an undergraduate class in statistics, were presented with sets of graphs depicting bi-variaté data that varied in correlation from about 0.0 to about .99. Three different data groups were depicted as both scatterplots and as three-dimensional graphs. Subjects rank ordered these sets of graphs on the basis of the degree of relationship present. For each set of graphs the order the subject chose was compared with the known order using Spearmans rho. In the early trials performance was better with the scatterplots, but by the last trial there was no difference between presentation methods for two out of the three data groups presented. The implications and limitations of these data are discussed.

Determining Perceived Traffic Sign Dimensions with Multidimensional Scaling

The evaluation of current and potential traffic signs is necessary in order to ensure that the signs are effective. Laboratory studies are an important first step in evaluating current and potential traffic signs in order to minimize the risk and expense associated with field research. This paper describes the application of multidimensional scaling to traffic signs, a method that appears to be well suited for determining perceived traffic sign dimensions. In two studies subjects judged the similarity of all possible pairs of 16 traffic signs. Three interpretable dimensions were found. These dimensions, in order of extraction, were color/content, message form (pictorial vs. verbal), and shape. The validity of this research technique and the limitations of these research results are discussed.

Graphically Comparing the Predictive Performance of Two Selection Models

In this paper a method is demonstrated which allows for the comparison of the predictive performance of 2 preference ordering models. This method employs a 3-dimensional graph which is both informative and easy to interpret. This method is demonstrated with a Monte Carlo study designed to compare the predictive performance of a utility preference model using different weighting coefficient schemes.