The effect of prior training with a scale of distance on absolute and relative judgments of distance over ground.

Abstract

Subjects of an experimental group made corrected fractionation judgments until a 300-yd. stretch of ground was divided into 25-yd. intervals. Following this preliminary training, half the experimental subjects made absolute estimations of distance to unfamiliar targets in a different field. The targets ranged from 52 to 395 yards away. Other experimental subjects made judgments of the relative distance to a standard and a variable target separated by 120 degrees. Control groups made the same judgments (relative or absolute) without fractionation pretraining. Pretraining significantly improved the accuracy of absolute estimation, as well as significantly reducing the variability of estimation. The sensitivity of relative distance judgment, however, was not improved as a result of pretraining. The difference limen for distance was about 2.5% of the standard distance for each of the 3 standard distances (50, 100 and 200 yd.) used.