Van Opstal Filip, Gevers Wim, De Moor Wendy, Verguts Tom
Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
Psychon Bull Rev. 2008 Apr;15(2):419-25. doi: 10.3758/pbr.15.2.419.
When participants are asked to compare two stimuli, responses are slower for stimuli close to each other on the relevant dimension than for stimuli further apart. Previously, it has been proposed that this comparison distance effect originates from overlap in the representation of the stimuli. This idea is generally accepted in numerical cognition, where it is assumed that representational overlap of numbers on a mental number line accounts for the effect (e.g., Cohen Kadosh et al., 2005). In contrast, others have emphasized the role of response-related processes to explain the comparison distance effect (e.g., Banks, 1977). In the present study, numbers and letters are used to show that the comparison distance effect can be dissociated from a more direct behavioral signature of representational overlap, the priming distance effect. The implication is that a comparison distance effect does not imply representational overlap. An interpretation is given in terms of a recently proposed model of quantity comparison (Verguts, Fias, & Stevens, 2005).
当要求参与者比较两个刺激时，在相关维度上彼此接近的刺激的反应比相距较远的刺激的反应更慢。此前，有人提出这种比较距离效应源于刺激表征的重叠。这一观点在数字认知领域普遍被接受，在该领域中，人们假定心理数字线上数字的表征重叠解释了这种效应（例如，科恩·卡多什等人，2005年）。相比之下，其他人强调反应相关过程在解释比较距离效应中的作用（例如，班克斯，1977年）。在本研究中，使用数字和字母来表明比较距离效应可以与表征重叠的更直接行为特征——启动距离效应相分离。这意味着比较距离效应并不意味着表征重叠。根据最近提出的数量比较模型（韦尔古茨、菲亚斯和史蒂文斯，2005年）给出了一种解释。
