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POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE RECENCY IN TWO‐CHOICE GUESSING
Author(s) -
DALE H. C. A.
Publication year - 1966
Publication title -
british journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.536
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 2044-8295
pISSN - 0007-1269
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8295.1966.tb01001.x
Subject(s) - psychology , serial position effect , social psychology , task (project management) , cognitive psychology , developmental psychology , recall , free recall , management , economics
According to the nature of the run of stimuli and outcomes, either positive or negative recency may be exhibited in the initial responses to a two‐choice guessing task. When red and black two‐digit numbers printed in two columns were used as stimuli, subjects responded to a run on one colour with positive recency, but to a run on one column with negative recency. Responses were found to be related to prior expectations in a way which occurs with a rational Bayesian decision process. With a very long run on one position (either column) the marked negative recency which occurred initially eventually gave way to positive recency. Three experiments are reported.