Memory Size Estimates of Playing Cards: The Effect of Manipulative Familiarity

Abstract

200 subjects estimated from memory the actual size of a playing card, rated their manipulative familiarity with cards, and estimated the elapsed-time period since they last handled cards. Size estimates were significantly greater than the card's actual size by about 14%; however, neither manipulative familiarity nor the elapsed-time period was significantly associated with estimates of size or with absolute errors of the size estimates. These findings are consistent with the claim that the reported variability in estimates of the distance of familiar objects, such as a playing card, viewed under otherwise reduced-cue conditions is unlikely to reflect extra-experimental individual differences in manipulative experience with cards.