title: Alphabetic sequence decisions for letter pairs with separations of one to three letters.
abstract: The alphabet storage and retrieval theory of Klahr, Chase, and Lovelace (1983) was tested for applicability to letter-order decisions. Ss judged whether letter pairs with sequential separations of 1, 2, or 3 letters were in correct or incorrect order. Ss made decisions either in a continuous- or intermittent-attention mode. The results for alphabetic letter-order decisions with a letter separation of 1 were in conformance with the theory of Klahr et al. in both attention modes. However, at letter separations of 2 and 3 letters, Ss made decisions that were more compatible with a symbolic-distance mechanism. Speculation on how Ss could make alphabetic-order decisions in either a memory-consultation or a symbolic-distance manner is made.
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces 88003.
authors.forename: A P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Grenzebach
authors.forename: J E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: McDonald
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D003657:Decision Making; D006801:Humans; D011930:Reaction Time; D012691:Serial Learning