ERIC Number: EJ1376295
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2022-Nov
Pages: 8
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0278-7393
EISSN: EISSN-1939-1285
Preference for Prior Probabilities of Positions under Incongruent Visual Information
Sampaio, Cristina; Wang, Ranxiao Frances
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, v48 n11 p1590-1597 Nov 2022
People's expectations help them make judgments about the world. In the area of spatial memory, the interaction of existing knowledge with incoming information is best illustrated in the category effect, a bias in positioning a target toward the prototypical location of its region (Huttenlocher et al., 1991). According to Bayesian principles, these biased judgments are weighted averages of a target's metric code (incoming data) and spatial categorical code (prior expectation). While previous research in the category effect generally focused on presence and reliability of different sources of information, we examined a scenario in which prior expectation is violated. Specifically, we investigated the role of prior expectations in location memory when these conflict with visual perception. We found that people favored their previous knowledge about where a target ought to be over the visual data on the actual target location. Hence, our work contributes to the literature by demonstrating the dominance of prior expectations over incongruent visual cues, and the data extend the context effect to spatial memory.
Descriptors: Expectation, Probability, Spatial Ability, Memory, Cognitive Processes, Evaluative Thinking, Prior Learning, Bias, Bayesian Statistics, Information Sources, Reliability, Visual Perception, Undergraduate Students
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Illinois (Urbana); Illinois (Champaign)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A