Adaptation-level theory: Absolute or relative anchor effectiveness?

The effect of the induction of involvement on psychophysical judgments

“…Psychophysical studies have also considered the relationship between the judgment of a stimulus series and the relative discrepancy of an anchor stimulus (e.g., Sarris, 1967Sarris, , 1968Adamson, 1967), finding that anchors beyond a given magnitude of discrepancy from a series begin to lose their effectiveness in producing judgment shifts. Using Helson's (1964) terminology, anchors increasingly removed from the "universe of discourse" (p. 233) of a judgment scale have lessened influence on judgment.…”

“…The original series included five weights: 220, 280, 340, 400, and 460 g. The anchor stimulus was a 900-g weight. The choice of series-weight values followed the work of Koslin et al (1967), whose study indicated that most Ss could discriminate between these weight diserepancies.f The anchor value was based on a study by Sarris (1968), which indicated that a 900-g anchor produced a considerable amount of contrast.…”

Contrast effects in the child’s judgment of lifted weight

“…As predieted, the single empirical anehor-AL relationships vary as a function of Ss' ehronologieal age. For ehildren older than 7;0 years, the eombined anehor-AL trends (for the "light" and "heavy" series) follow a eubie (tritonie) trend as found for adult Ss (Sarris, 1968), whereas for younger ehildren, the eontrast effeet trend is monotonie in eharaeter. DISCUSSION The general experimental finding in this investigation, based on rather direet perceptual measures instead of rating seale values, must be interpreted in eognitive rather than in sensory terms.…”

“…Other things being equal, almost the same measurement series as that used in an earlier lifted-weights experiment with adults (Sarris, 1968) were eonstrueted, namely, a "light series" (20, 60, 100, 140, 180 g) along with four heavier anehor weights (450, 701, 1092, 1700 g) plus one control anchor (about 95 g), in order to test for an upper infleetion point, and a "heavy series" (200,250,300,350,400 …”

“…While the basie quantitative model of adaptation level (AL) theory implies that neutral psyehophysieal judgment varies as a monotonie function of the anehor value (Helson, 1964), several parametrie studies have shown that the empirieal anehor-AL relationship folIows, aetuaIly, a eubie trend (Helson & Masters, 1966;Sarris, 1967Sarris, , 1968Sarris, , 1969Sarris & Haider, 1970;. This weIl established finding must be interpreted in eognitive rat her than in sensory terms, sinee it means that the weIl known psyehophysieal eontrast effeet gradually disappears when the anehor beeomes psyehologieally extreme.…”