SELECTIVE CHANGES IN THE PRESENTATION OF RANDOM SHAPES AS A DETERMINANT OF JUDGED COMPLEXITY.

Abstract

The paper reports on a study conducted to determine the effects on judged complexity which result from selected changes in the number and range of complexity levels associated with a series of randomly derived stimulus shapes. Human subjects were required to judge the complexity of a series of tachistoscopically presented stimulus shapes, where judgements followed the presentation of a sample or anchor stimulus. The results show that judged complexity can be significantly effected by (1) a change in the number of complexity levels presented; (2) the complexity of the initial stimuli presented in a series of stimulus presentations (findings indicated an inverse correlation between the constructed complexity of sample stimuli and the judged complexity of subsequent stimuli); and (3) the constructed complexity of the stimulus being judged. Results also indicated that complexity level interaction may function as an identifiable factor which effects complexity judgements. Finally, the results suggest that variables shown to contribute to judgements of complexity constitute an aggregate, where each member of the aggregate must incorporate appropriate weighting factors in order to improve the reliability of predictions concerning complexity judgements. (Author)

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jul 01, 1966
Accession Number
AD0640650

Entities

People

  • Charles P. Allen

Organizations

  • System Development Corporation

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Cognition
  • Judgment
  • Mental Processes
  • Reliability

Fields of Study

  • Psychology

Readers

  • Distributed Systems and Data Platform Development
  • Regression Analysis.
  • Vision Science/Vision Psychology/Cognitive Neuroscience.