Van Zandt T, Townsend J T
Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.
Percept Psychophys. 1993 May;53(5):563-80. doi: 10.3758/bf03205204.
A major issue in elementary cognition and information processing has been whether rapid search of short-term memory or a visual display can terminate when a predesignated target is found or whether it must proceed until all items are examined. This study summarizes past and recent theoretical results on the ability of self-terminating and exhaustive models to predict differences in slopes between positive (target-present) and negative (target-absent) set-size functions, as well as position effects. The empirical literature is reviewed with regard to the presence of slope differences and position effects. Theoretical investigations demonstrate that self-terminating models can readily predict the results often associated with exhaustive processing, but a very broad class of exhaustive models is incapable of predicting position effects and slope differences typically associated with self-termination. Because position effects and slope differences are found throughout the rapid search literature, we conclude that the exhaustive processing hypothesis is not tenable under common experimental conditions.
在初级认知和信息处理中，一个主要问题是，对短期记忆或视觉显示进行快速搜索时，在找到预先指定的目标后搜索是否能够终止，还是必须持续进行直到检查完所有项目。本研究总结了过去和近期关于自终止模型和穷尽模型在预测正（有目标）负（无目标）集大小函数之间斜率差异以及位置效应能力方面的理论结果。针对斜率差异和位置效应的存在情况，对实证文献进行了综述。理论研究表明，自终止模型能够轻易预测那些通常与穷尽处理相关的结果，但非常广泛的一类穷尽模型无法预测通常与自终止相关的位置效应和斜率差异。由于在整个快速搜索文献中都发现了位置效应和斜率差异，我们得出结论，在常见实验条件下，穷尽处理假设是站不住脚的。
