Testing n-stimuli bisymmetry

Abstract

In the seventies bisection, a kind of observational averaging of two stimuli, came to be studied and empirically investigated in measurement theory and corresponding psychophysical experiments. Since 1993, Münnich, Maksa and Mokken (Aggregating evaluations of multi-attribute stimuli. 31st International Symposium on Functional Equations, Debrecen, 2000) developed the formal framework and theory for a more general type of bisection of more than two variables. A core assumption for this generalization of 2-stimuli bisection to that of n-stimuli, is that of n-variable bisymmetry. After an introduction of this concept, the validity of its assumption is tested and demonstrated with four experiments. Experiment 1 was a computer-aided task in which input modalities were different line lengths presented on computer screen. Experiments 1, 3 and 4 included field experiments of the paper and pencil type, in which numbers served as input modalities, but in different contexts.