Identification versus same-different judgment: An interpretation in terms of uncorrelated perceptual error

• Published in: Journal of experimental psychology Vol. 72; no. 1; pp. 20 - 25
• Main Authors: Eriksen, Charles W, Munsinger, Harry L, Greenspon, Thomas S
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Psychological Association 01-07-1966
• Subjects: Discrimination (Psychology); Female; Form Perception; Human; Humans; Judgment; Male; Models, Theoretical; Visual Perception
• ISSN: 0022-1015; 1946-1941
• DOI: 10.1037/h0023317

2 studies are reported concerning the relation between identification of a single tachistoscopically presented stimulus and the discrimination of pairs of stimuli presented at comparable exposure durations. The results of both studies show that accuracy of identification of a single item is higher than accuracy of discrimination of 2 items as same or different. A simple model is proposed which assumes errors of identification of 2 simultaneous forms are independent. The predictions based upon the model fit the obtained accuracy scores and permit the prediction of simultaneous discrimination accuracy on the basis of single identification thresholds.