Psychological Scaling

Encho Gerganov

New Bulgarian University

Methods of psychological scaling are presented in a perspective of their application to cognitive science researches. The law of comparative judgment, the law of categorical judgment, the theory of multidimensional scaling and multidimensional unfolding are regarded in a context of application to perception, categorization, semantics, etc. The course focuses on the most frequently used methods of one-dimensional and multidimensional scaling like method of paired comparisons, method of successive categories, complete method of triads, free classification task. Learning strategy is strongly oriented to practical work.

Readings

Required Texts:

Torgerson, W.S. Theory and Methods of Scaling. John Wiley and Sons. New York, 1958

Coombs, C.H. A Theory of Data. John Wiley and Sons. New York, 1964

Davison, M.L. Multidimensional Scaling. John Wiley and Sons. New York, 1983

Optional Texts:

Cox, T.F. and Cox, M.A.A. Multidimensional scaling/Book and Disk. Chapman & Hall, 1994

Nosofsky, R.M. (1992). Similarity scaling and cognitive process models. Annual Review of Psychology, 43:25-53

Nosofsky, R.M. (1991). Stimulus Bias, Asymmetric Similarity, and Classification. Cognitive Psychology 23, 94-140

Tversky A. (1977). Features of Similarity. Psychological Review. Vol. 84, No 4, pp. 327-352

Class 1: An Overview of Scaling Theory. Basic Concepts and Terms. Applications in Cognitive Science

Required:

Chapter 1 in A Theory of Data; Chapter 1 in Theory and Methods of Scaling

Optional:

Suppes, P. and J. Zinnes (1963). ‘Basic Measurement Theory’. In Handbook of Mathematical Psychology, Vol. 1, edited by R. B. Bush, E.H.Galanter, and R.D.Luce, John Wiley and Sons, New York

Class 2: Preferential Choice Data. The Unfolding Technique in One Dimension. Multidimensional Unfolding

Required:

Chapter 3 and Chapter 5 in A Theory of Data

Class 3. Single Stimulus Data. Scalogram Analysis. Basic Concepts in Item Response Theory

Required:

Chapter 10 and Chapter 11 in A Theory of Data

Optional:

Chapter 10 in Theory and Methods of Scaling

Class 4. Law of Comparative Judgment. Method of Pared Comparisons. Law of Categorical Judgment. Method of Successive Categories

Required:

Chapter 9 in Theory and Methods of Scaling;

Optional:

Chapter 17 in A Theory of Data

Class 5. Multidimensional Scaling - Basic Models. Methods of Collecting Similarity Data

Required:

Chapters 3 – 6 in Davison. Multidimensional scaling

Optional:

Nosofsky, R.M. (1992). Similarity scaling and cognitive process models. Annual Review of Psychology, 43:25-53

Nosofsky, R.M. (1991). Stimulus Bias, Asymmetric Similarity, and Classification. Cognitive Psychology 23, 94-140

Tversky A. (1977). Features of Similarity. Psychological Review. Vol. 84, No 4, pp. 327-352

Small Groups

Participants will work individually and in groups on designing experiments and discussing the results.

Assignments

Students will be required to design and carry out two scaling experiments:

• applying methods of one-dimensional scaling or unfolding for testing hypotheses if some antonym words are really antonyms, for studying focal stimuli, for measuring frequency, familiarity, imagery, abstractness, typicality or other parameters of lexical items, pictures, members of categories etc.;

• applying multidimensional scaling and multidimensional unfolding technique for revealing dimensionality of semantic similarity data, perceptual similarity data etc.

Different methods of collecting data will be exercised.

Encho Gerganov is Professor in Psychology and Head of the Department of Cognitive Science and Psychology at the New Bulgarian University. His research has been in the fields of psycholinguistics and semantic memory. He is the author of Memory and Sense.