Mixed-modality psychophysical scaling:sequential dependencies and other properties.

Abstract

J. C. Stevens and Marks’s (1980) method of magnitude matching and a derivative, category matching, are examined in two experiments. Category matching produces highly similar matching functions to those of magnitude matching. The two methods are both subject to significant sequential dependencies, which, however, should not affect exponents of matching functions. Such mixed-modality scaling methods are also useful for theory testing. In the present case, responses were assimilated to the immediately previous response (different modality stimulus) but contrasted with the stimulus (same modality) two trials back in the sequence. The dependency of the response-response dependency on Sn-Sn-k was independent of stimulus modality. However, the usual dependency of the coefficient of variation of ratios of successive responses on Sn-Sn-k was not found. These results support the class of theories in which assimilative response-response dependencies and contrastive response-stimulus dependencies arise from different mechanisms, and disconfirm those in which both effects arise in a linked fashion from a single mechanism.