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Context‐Constrained Judgment of the Perceived Risk of HIV/AIDS 1
Author(s) -
Baird John C.,
Chawarski Marek C.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.1559-1816.2005.tb02092.x
Subject(s) - salience (neuroscience) , risk perception , perception , context (archaeology) , psychology , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , social psychology , context effect , variety (cybernetics) , intervention (counseling) , cognitive psychology , computer science , medicine , artificial intelligence , mathematics , geography , immunology , geometry , archaeology , neuroscience , psychiatry , word (group theory)
This study introduces a computer method for assessing perception of stimuli presented in a constrained context. The method is illustrated through experiments on perception of the risk of becoming infected with HIV and AIDS. In five experiments, context‐constrained judgments (CCJ) or context‐independent judgments were obtained from 258 undergraduates. Participants judged the risk of contracting HIV/AIDS for a variety of target populations, including themselves. The CCJ method results in greater response discrimination among the salience of perceived risk factors than does a context independent method. This outcome has potential implications for education and intervention programs to control the spread of HIV.