Target location probability affects the perceptual decision process

• Main Authors: Ting-YunChang, 張婷昀
• Other Authors: Cheng-Ta Yang
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/43637243771602401392

碩士 === 國立成功大學 === 心理學系認知科學碩士班 === 102 === The current study investigated how target location probability affects decision processes. In three experiments, participants detected the presence of a target dot at two locations. Target location probability and attentional instruction were manipulated. When the target appeared at the two locations with equal frequency (Experiment 1), the participants who had a system of limited capacity adopted parallel self-terminating strategy to process information while the participants who had a system of supercapacity coactively processed information. When the target appeared at one location with higher frequency than at another location (Experiments 2 and 3), two of the participants adopted a parallel self-terminating strategy to process information whether they were informed the target location probability or not, whereas the others adopted a parallel self-terminating strategy when not informed the uneven target location probability (Experiment 2) and changed to adopt a serial self-terminating strategy when informed the uneven target location probability (Experiment 3). From Experiment 1 to Experiment 3, processing capacity shifted from supercapacity or limited-capacity to extremely limited-capacity. Overall, these results suggest that target location probability affects the selection of a decision strategy differentially due to individual differences in processing capacity, and highlight the role of controlled attention in selecting a decision strategy.