SUBJECTIVE AVERAGING OF LENGTH WITH SERIAL PRESENTATION

8 undergraduates estimated the average of 6 lengths presented serially 1 at a time. In Exp. I, the judgment was made only at the end of the sequence. In Exp. II, S estimated a cumulative average as each new length was presented. For the most part, each S's data could be described by a subjective averaging model as tested in single-S analyses. Recency effect, later lengths in the sequence having greater influence, was fairly uniform across Ss in Exp. I, but large individual differences in the serial position curves appeared in Exp. II. In Exp. III, 2 hypotheses about the cause of recency were tested, but received little support. Functional measurement technique showed that subjective length differed from objective length, apparently by a constant error for each S. It is noted that the present methods could be applied to psychophysical scaling of other stimulus dimensions. (18 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1969 American Psychological Association.