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Abstract

Proximities analysis of similarities data was the objective of this study. Experimental questions were: Can the psychological space implied by judgments of similarity be recovered and represented metrically; will it approximate the preconstructed physical space of the stimuli, and if so, what are the implications? Complex, physically similar stimuli were constructed according to rules of circumplex analysis; similarities judgments were obtained using the complete method of triads, and judgment data were examined by proximities analysis. Results demonstrated that the psychological space was recoverable and it closely resembled the physical similarity of the stimuli. The importance of these findings and their implications for other research were discussed.

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Using Proximities Analysis in the Quantification of Stimulus Similarity

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