Research Express@NCKU - Articles Digest
Research Express@NCKU Volume 28 Issue 4 - January 16, 2015 [ http://research.ncku.edu.tw/re/articles/e/20150116/3.html ]
Relative change probability affects the decision process
of detecting multiple feature changes
Cheng-Ta Yang
*, Ting-Yun Chang, Chia-Jung Wu
Department of Psychology, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701, Taiwan. [email protected]
Yang, C.-T., Chang, T.-Y., & Wu, C.-J.(2013). Relative change probability affects the decision process of detecting multiple feature changes. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance.39(5), 1365-1385.
O
ur environment changes over time. And a change in a real world usually consists of multiple feature changes, with one feature changes more often than another. For example, change in hair style may comprise of changes in hair length as well as hair color. Changes in hair length may be more often for some people. Learning these change probability information enables us to interact efficiently with the world.This study manipulated the change probability of orientation change and spatial frequency
change to investigate how the relative change probability influences the perceptual comparison and decision processes in a change detection task. Results showed that parallel processing was adopted when two types of features changed equally often (Experiment 1), indicating two feature-changes were processed simultaneously and in parallel for a decision. When spatial frequency changed more often than orientation (Experiment 2), serial processing was adopted, indicating that processing of spatial frequency was prioritized. However, when there was a lack of cognitive resources (Experiment 3), parallel processing was adopted even when relative change
probability existed. In addition, none of the participants reported that they were aware of the probability
information across all the experiments, providing evidence of implicit learning for change probability information.
Results of the present study support the relative saliency hypothesis: relative change probability affects the relative salience between features and, consequently, influences the adoption of decision strategies. Furthermore, the results highlight that perceptual comparison and decision processes are flexible and can vary depending on the relative saliency and resources available for information processing.
