title: Increasing capacity: practice effects in absolute identification.
abstract: In most of the long history of the study of absolute identification--since Miller's (1956) seminal article--a severe limit on performance has been observed, and this limit has resisted improvement even by extensive practice. In a startling result, Rouder, Morey, Cowan, and Pfaltz (2004) found substantially improved performance with practice in the absolute identification of line lengths, albeit for only 3 participants and in a somewhat atypical paradigm. We investigated the limits of this effect and found that it also occurs in more typical paradigms, is not limited to a few virtuoso participants or due to relative judgment strategies, and generalizes to some (e.g., line inclination and tone frequency) but not other (e.g., tone loudness) dimensions. We also observed, apart from differences between dimensions, 2 unusual aspects of improvement with practice: (a) a positive correlation between initial performance and the effect of practice and (b) a large reduction in a characteristic trial-to-trial decision bias with practice.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, New South Wales 2308, Australia. pennie.dodds@newcastle.edu.au
authors.forename: Pennie
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dodds
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Donkin
authors.forename: Scott D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Heathcote
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007062:Identification, Psychological; D007600:Judgment / Q000502:physiology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011214:Practice, Psychological; D011571:Psychoacoustics; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013997:Time Factors; D014163:Transfer, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology