Zhao Jiaying, Hahn Ulrike, Osherson Daniel
Department of Psychology, Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability.
Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck College, University of London.
J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform. 2014 Aug;40(4):1358-71. doi: 10.1037/a0036816. Epub 2014 May 12.
The cognition of randomness consists of perceptual and conceptual components. One might be able to discriminate random from nonrandom stimuli, yet be unable to identify which is which. In a series of experiments, we compare the ability to distinguish random from nonrandom stimuli to the accuracy with which given stimuli are identified as "random." In a further experiment, we also evaluate the encoding hypothesis according to which the tendency of a stimulus to be labeled random varies with the cognitive difficulty of encoding it (Falk & Konold, 1997). In our experiments, the ability to distinguish random from nonrandom stimuli is superior to the ability to correctly label them. Moreover, for at least 1 class of stimuli, difficulty of encoding fails to predict the probability of being labeled random, providing evidence against the encoding hypothesis.
对随机性的认知由感知和概念成分组成。一个人也许能够区分随机刺激和非随机刺激，但却无法确定哪个是随机的，哪个是非随机的。在一系列实验中，我们将区分随机刺激和非随机刺激的能力与将给定刺激识别为“随机”的准确性进行了比较。在进一步的实验中，我们还评估了编码假说，根据该假说，刺激被标记为随机的倾向会随着对其进行编码的认知难度而变化（福尔克和科诺尔德，1997）。在我们的实验中，区分随机刺激和非随机刺激的能力优于正确标记它们的能力。此外，对于至少一类刺激，编码难度无法预测被标记为随机的概率，这为反对编码假说提供了证据。
