title: Spatial estimation: a non-Bayesian alternative.
abstract: A large collection of estimation phenomena (e.g. biases arising when adults or children estimate remembered locations of objects in bounded spaces; Huttenlocher, Newcombe & Sandberg, 1994) are commonly explained in terms of complex Bayesian models. We provide evidence that some of these phenomena may be modeled instead by a simpler non-Bayesian alternative. Undergraduates and 9- to 10-year-olds completed a speeded linear position estimation task. Bias in both groups' estimates could be explained in terms of a simple psychophysical model of proportion estimation. Moreover, some individual data were not compatible with the requirements of the more complex Bayesian model.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Wesleyan University, USA.
authors.forename: Hilary
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Barth
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Wesleyan University, USA.
authors.forename: Ellen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lesser
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Wesleyan University, USA.
authors.forename: Jessica
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Taggart
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Wesleyan University, USA.|Department of Child and Adolescent Development, San Jose State University, USA.
authors.forename: Emily
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Slusser
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D015982:Bias; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011601:Psychophysics; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors