Sample Size Bias in Judgments of Perceptual Averages

Autor/inn/en	Price, Paul C.; Kimura, Nicole M.; Smith, Andrew R.; Marshall, Lindsay D.
Titel	Sample Size Bias in Judgments of Perceptual Averages
Quelle	In: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 40 (2014) 5, S.1321-1331 (11 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0278-7393
DOI	10.1037/a0036576
Schlagwörter	Sample Size; Statistical Bias; Visual Perception; Pictorial Stimuli; Experiments; Task Analysis; Cognitive Processes; Cognitive Psychology; Undergraduate Students; Computer Assisted Testing; Statistical Analysis; Robustness (Statistics); California; North Carolina + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Visuelle Wahrnehmung; Fantasieanregung; Erprobung; Aufgabenanalyse; Cognitive process; Kognitiver Prozess; Kognitive Psychologie; Statistische Analyse; Widerstandsfähigkeit; Kalifornien
Abstract	Previous research has shown that people exhibit a sample size bias when judging the average of a set of stimuli on a single dimension. The more stimuli there are in the set, the greater people judge the average to be. This effect has been demonstrated reliably for judgments of the average likelihood that groups of people will experience negative, positive, and neutral events (Price, 2001; Price, Smith, & Lench, 2006) and also for estimates of the mean of sets of numbers (Smith & Price, 2010). The present research focuses on whether this effect is observed for judgments of average on a perceptual dimension. In 5 experiments we show that people's judgments of the average size of the squares in a set increase as the number of squares in the set increases. This effect occurs regardless of whether the squares in each set are presented simultaneously or sequentially; whether the squares in each set are different sizes or all the same size; and whether the response is a rating of size, an estimate of area, or a comparative judgment. These results are consistent with a priming account of the sample size bias, in which the sample size activates a representation of magnitude that directly biases the judgment of average. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01