Absolute

identification
COGLAB-ERGONOMICS 2
 Table of Contents
DEFINITION CONCEPTS

01 TACKLES THE MEANING

OF ABSOLUTE 02 PROVIDES CONCEPTS
RELATED TO ABSOLUTE
IDENTIFICATION IDENTIFICATION

BACKGROUND INSTRUCTION/PROCESS
03 BRIEF BACKGROUND OF
THE TOPIC 04 SAMPLE PROCESS OF THE
TOPIC
[DEFINIT
ION!]
Lots of research in cognitive psychology has focused on whether there is a
fundamental limit on people's capacity to process information and, if so, what
that limit is.

It might often seem that we have almost unlimited potential, especially when it
comes to identifying and recognizing different items. Think of all the different
people you can identify, or cars, or animals, or buildings, or pieces of furniture.

Given the ease with which all of these items can be identified, it comes as a
surprise to most people to find that when items vary in just one dimension, they
cannot identify even seven items.

The research that demonstrates this limitation is often done using a procedure
known as ABSOLUTE IDENTIFICATION.
“Existence is identity.
Consciousness is
IDENTIFICATION.”

—AYN RAND
 03
BACKG
ROUND
In a typical absolute identification experiment, people are exposed to a set of stimuli that vary systematically along only one
dimension (e.g., nine tones of different frequencies, or eight lines of different lengths). A label, often a digit, is associated with
each stimulus. The task is simply to produce the correct label in response to the presentation of an item from the set.

When the items are evenly spaced, the first and last items in the series are identified most easily. In contrast, identification of
the middle items is usually quite poor. Such effects are found for many dimensions, including frequency, loudness, weight,
area, line length, and semantic continua.

One curious aspect is that performance seems fundamentally limited: No matter how many trials you receive, you never
become perfect at this task as long as the stimuli vary along only one dimension (Shiffrin & Nosofsky, 1994). If the stimuli
varied along two or more dimensions, the task becomes trivially easy. For example, you probably have no trouble identifying
the letters in the alphabet. This is because the letters vary on multiple dimensions including height (the letter 't' is taller than
the letter 'e'), curvature (the letter 'i' is straight, the letter 's' is all curves), and others.
 [INSTRUCTION]
On the remaining trials, you will hear a single
tone. Your task is to identify the tone. The
You'll see a rectangle below. Make sure computer will tell if you were correct; if you
that you can see the full area before were not correct, the computer will tell you
which tone it was.
you begin the lab.
At the end of the experiment, you will be
asked if you want to save your data to a set of
global data. After you answer the question, a
new Web page window will appear that
includes a debriefing, your data, your group's
data, and the global data.

Step 1 Step 3 Step 5

Step 2 Step 4
Click or tap on the Start Trial button to begin. There are a total of 81 trials. This sounds like
You will first hear all 9 tones. Tone 1 is the a lot, but it takes only a few seconds to do
lowest in pitch, tone 9 is the highest in pitch. each trial.
 ADDITIONAL
TABLINSTRUCTION!
ET ● If you are using a tablet, tap the Start Next
Trial button to begin. After you hear the tone, tap
APP one of the numbered buttons to indicate the
identity of the tone.
 ADDITIONAL
INSTRUCTION!
TABL
COM ● If you are using a computer, click the Start Next

ET
PUTE
Trial button to begin. After you hear the tone,
click one of the numbered buttons to indicate the
identity of the tone.
APP
R
RECORDED
DATA
 DATA
SUMMARY
GROUP DATA
LOBAL DATA
 Thanks!
Do you have any questions?

urccruz@bpsu.edu.ph
+951 902 3701
BSIE 3A

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