Apparent recency of unrelated pictures and nouns presented in the same sequence.

Abstract

Regularly interrupted a long inspection sequence consisting of single unrelated pictures and nouns with questions in which 42 undergraduates and instructors chose the more recently presented of the 2 items shown in the question. In 1/2 of the questions, the stimuli closer to and farther from the question in which they were being compared were both pictures or nouns; in the other 1/2, 1 was a picture, the other a noun. From best to poorest, accuracy of choice of the more recently presented item was: 2 pictures, nearer picture and farther noun, 2 nouns, and nearer noun and farther picture. Data support the hypothesis that judgments of recency for the 2 classes of stimuli differ in both average location and variability on a subjective continuum. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)