Development of a model to analyze the overall judgment of similarity and its evaluation

Research Project

Project/Area Number	60510037
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Psychology
Research Institution	Hokkaido University
Principal Investigator	SAITO Takayuki Hokkaido University, Faculty of Literature,Associate Professor, 文学部, 助教授 (70113561) 齊藤堯幸 (1986) 北海道大学, 文学部, 助教授
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	MIZUTA Masahiro Hokkaido University, Faculty of Literature, Instructor., 文学部, 助手 (70174026)
Project Period (FY)	1985 – 1986
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 1986)
Budget Amount *help	¥900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000) Fiscal Year 1986: ¥500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000) Fiscal Year 1985: ¥400,000 (Direct Cost: ¥400,000)
Keywords	Similarity / Dissimilarity / Multidimensional Scaling / Context Effect / Cognitive Level / 非線形最適化
Research Abstract	In order to explore the complex aspects in the overall judgment of similarity or dissimilarity, this research aimed to develop a model and the scaling method and also to evaluate them. First it was found that the overall judgment process is related to many aspects such as (dis)similarity judgment, perceptual process, cognitive process, context effects, frequency effect. Next, on the basis of those findings, a general model was proposed to analyze the structure and those aspects involved in the overall judgment. A new method of multidimensional scaling was then developed to estimate the model parameters, by using nonlinear optimization methods. Finally, the algorithms were evaluated through a Monte Carlo study, which indicated practical applicability of the model and the scaling method. This research was accomplished by demonstrating application studies.