On the independence of modality effects and end-term and distance effects in episodic comparative judgement: Dissociations of errors and reaction times

Abstract

The experiments reported in this paper explore the effect of modality variations on end-term and distance effects in an episodic comparative judgement task. In each experiment, subjects were to store serial orders of objects on a size dimension. Memory was tested after a brief retention interval by a comparative judgement task, in which subjects were presented with two elements of an order and had to point to the formerly larger one. Regarding the response times, we hypothesized that modality variations affect speed of stimulus identification and code access processes. We further hypothesized that distance variations and end-term variations affect processing components that are independent of the component affected by the modality variation. Finally, we assumed that end-term and distance effects interact in a predictable way, because they mirror competing response selection strategies. The latency data clearly support these hypotheses. As regards the accuracy data, we argued that modality and end-term effects, if they show up within the accuracy data, very likely have a different basis than the effects within the latency data. Again, the data support this assumption showing clear dissociations of accuracy and latency data. With respect to the stimulus modality variation, the whole data pattern shows that explanations which rely on modality-specific codings are not justifiable. PsycINFO classification: 2343