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Abstract

It was hypothesized that certain personality variables would be related to decision making in a guessing experiment. A stimulus set of 100 3- × 5-in. unlined filing cards, 75 of which contained circles and 25 of which were blank, was presented twice to each of 56 undergraduate Ss. The cards were in a random order and Ss were asked to guess whether a circle or a blank would be the forthcoming event. Their predictions on the second session's presentations were quantified in terms of the likelihood of false positive errors and hit rate over false alarm rate. Independently of the behavioral task, all Ss completed two personality inventories designed to assess need for approval and a dimension of internal vs external control of reinforcement. Scholastic Aptitude Test scores and Ss' estimates of the number of circles present in the stimulus set were incorporated as control variables. Results clearly show the effect of personality differences on guessing behavior. Subsequent related studies for psychophysics and judgmental responses were suggested.

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Relation of Certain Personality Variables to Decision Making in Perception

Abstract

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References