1 - Historical Foundations and a Tutorial Introduction to Systems Factorial Technology

Abstract

In this chapter, we explore the foundations of a major analytical foundation of Systems Factorial Technology (SFT) – the Double Factorial Paradigm (DFP). The experimental methodology of the DFP was developed by Townsend and colleagues for the purposes of examining the architecture and efficiency of an information processing system. The experimenter can implement the DFP in any setting by manipulating the presence versus absence of two factors, and secondly, the saliency (e.g., high versus low) of the same factors. Psychologists can use these model fitting techniques to open the “black box” so to speak, and determine whether the processing of chunks of information occurs in serial, parallel, or coactively. Traditionally, the DFP has been implemented in psychophysical detection studies. However, because psychologists and cognitive scientists are generally interested in how complex perception unfolds—whether it is face or word recognition—this chapter delves into an application involving audiovisual speech perception. Importantly, techniques outlined in this chapter can readily find applications in object, word, face, and speech recognition.