A theoretical framework for understanding the effects of simultaneous base-rate and payoff manipulations on decision criterion learning in perceptual categorization.
Observers completed perceptual categorization tasks in which base rates and payoffs were manipulated separately or simultaneously across a range of category discriminabilities. Decision criterion estimates from the simultaneous base-rate/payoff conditions were closer to optimal than those predicted from the independence assumption, in line with predictions from the flat-maxima hypothesis. A hybrid model that instantiated the flat-maxima and competition between reward and accuracy maximization hypotheses was applied to the data as well as used in a reanalysis of C. J. Bohil and W.J. Maddox's (2001) study. The hybrid model was superior to a model that incorporated the independence assumption, suggesting that violations of the independence assumption are to be expected and are well captured by the flat-maxima hypothesis, without requiring any additional assumptions.
Maddox
W Todd
WT
Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, 78712, USA. maddox@psy.utexas.edu
Bohil
Corey J
CJ
D003657:Decision Making; D003661:Decision Support Techniques; D003662:Decision Theory; D003933:Diagnosis; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D006801:Humans; D009042:Motivation; D011337:Probability Learning; D011340:Problem Solving; D012718:Set, Psychology