An experiment using 50 college students equated cue values of frequency, repetition, and alternation in one- and two-cue partially random sequences in order to determine whether the cues were responded to independently or in combination and to test earlier results concerning cue saliency. Using improved methods of data analysis, previous findings that repetition is more salient than frequency and frequency more salient than alternation were replicated. In spite of the saliency differences, the design employed demonstrated that both cues in two-cue sequences were responded to and that responses to one-cue appeared to be independent of responses to the other.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AndersonN. H. (1960). Effect of first order conditional probability in a two-choice learning situation. Journal of Experimental Psychology59, 73–93.
2.
EnglerJ. (1958). Marginal and conditional probabilities and response probabilities in verbal conditioning. Journal of Experimental Psychology55, 303–7.
3.
HakeH. W.HymanR. (1953). Perception of the statistical structure of binary symbols. Journal of Experimental Psychology45, 64–74.
4.
JonesM. R. (1971). From probability learning to sequential processing: A critical review. Psychological Bulletin76, 153–85.
5.
ManningS. K.ArtmanJ. (1973). New procedure to test some factors in human spontaneous alternation. Journal of Experimental Psychology97, 274–7.
6.
MillwardR. B.ReberA. S. (1972). Probability learning: Contingent-event schedules with lags. American Journal of Psychology85, 81–98.
7.
ReberA. S.MillwardR. B. (1965). Event memory in probability learning. Psychonomic Science3, 431–2.
8.
RogersH. E.KeisterR. S.WilliamsD. T. (1973). Switching contingencies in a two-choice problem. Journal of Experimental Psychology97, 242–8.
9.
SuppesP.AtkinsonR. C. (1960). Markov learning models for multiperson interactionsStanford, California: Stanford University Press.
10.
WitteR. S. (1964). Long-term effects of patterned reward schedules. Journal of Experimental Psychology68, 588–94.
