SPAN OF APPREHENSION IN RELATION TO THE NUMBER OF STIMULUS ALTERNATIVES.

Abstract

The purpose of this experiment was an attempt to quantify the Gestalt Law of Similarity. The present S-R translation of the Law of Similarity states that the level of a response to a stimulus configuration depends on the number of different types of elements in the stimulus field. The hypothesis is that, as the reciprocal number of element alternatives increases, response accuracy increases as a growth function. 100 university students were shown slides on which from 5 to 9 dots were randomly placed. The slides were divided into five stimulus element alternative levels. The 20 slides in each set involved four replications of stimulus element numerosity. Each S viewed one set of slides, so that 20 Ss viewed each set and reported the number of objects seen. The equation best fitting the experimental data expresses a power relationship: a = 0.13 (n−1)1.70, where a designates response accuracy, and n−1 represents reciprocal number of stimulus alternatives. Empirical points did not deviate significantly from the fitted equation. As response accuracy increased with increase in stimulus element similarity, the S-R analogue of the Gestalt Law of Similarity was verified.