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In this experiment, Ss were visually presented with the names of two animals and were required to throw a switch under the name of the larger animal. Although error rates were relatively low (4.5%), reaction time (RT) was largely an inverse linear function of the logarithm of the estimated difference in animal size. Since RT is similarly related to size differences when Ss make direct perceptual comparisons (e.g.. of lengths of line), it was argued that Ss compare animal names by making an "internal psychophysical judgment." A more general model was then proposed for answering, from memory, questions of the form, "Which is lXI, /A/ or /Br" where /X/ is any comparative adjective and /A/ and /B/ are any concrete nouns.We often compare objects by retrieving information from memory rather than by direct perceptual inspection. For example, people can quickly and accurately answer numerous questions of the form, "Which is lXI, IAI or IB/?" where IAI and IBI are concrete nouns and IXI is the comparative form of an adjective. Despite the obvious importance of these memorial comparative judgments, we know very little about how they are accomplished.One hypothesis is that the mental process involves an "imagined perceptual comparison" of the objects along the dimension in question. This hypothesis makes an easily tested prediction about the time required for such judgments. For example: substituting Ilargerl for IXI and animal names for the concrete nouns IAI and IBI

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Separate groups of people estimated the sizes of perceived or of remembered objects. In three independent experiments, both sets of data were well fit by power functions, and the exponent was reliably smaller by remembered than for perceived size.