Uncertainty and latency of verbal naming responses as correlates of pattern goodness

Abstract

Summary Ratings of pattern goodness have been shown to correlate with the size or uncertainty of the perceived set of equivalent patterns. If this pattern uncertainty is considered the stimulus uncertainty, then dependent variables known to correlate with stimulus uncertainty also should correlate with ratings of pattern goodness. The experimental hypothesis was that ratings of pattern goodness, uncertainties of verbal naming responses, and latencies of these responses are all highly correlated. Stimuli were two sets of 50 patterns each. One set included patterns of five dots placed in an imaginary three-by-three square matrix. The other set consisted of patterns made by filling various squares in an imaginary nine-by-nine square matrix. Thirty S s rated all patterns for goodness on a seven-point scale. Sixty different S s were required to give one-word verbal naming responses to the patterns, with the latency and content of each response being recorded. All correlations among ratings of goodness, response uncertainties, and response latencies were significant at the 0.001 level, and a single factor was found to underlie the correlations (all loadings on this factor were above 0.80). It is inferred that these dependent variables are concomitants of perceived pattern uncertainty.