Kk. Shieh et Cj. Lai, MULTIDIMENSIONAL STIMULUS IDENTIFICATION - INSTRUCTING SUBJECTS IN THE ORDER OF REPORTING STIMULUS DIMENSIONS, Perceptual and motor skills, 84(3), 1997, pp. 995-1008
Two experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of order of
report on identification of multidimensional stimuli under various exp
erimental conditions. Statistical analysis showed that order of report
affected speed of identification. Subjects responded faster if a natu
ral and more appropriate way of reporting stimulus dimensions was used
. Further, subjects reacted more slowly if they were free to report st
imulus dimensions in any order than when they were forced to report in
a particular order. Their performance was even worse when order of re
port was a within-subject factor. Response competition and response in
hibition were proposed as possible explanations of the results. The im
plications of the results for multidimensional identification tasks ar
e to designate an appropriate order of reporting stimulus dimensions a
nd to instruct subjects to respond in that order.