Mathematical Studies of the Information in the Stimulus-Response Matrix

This paper considers the information transmitted in absolute judgments as encoded in a stimulus-response matrix (e.g., see Garner and Hake, 1951). When transmitted information is plotted against the number of stimulus categories in the matrix, one obtains a curve that increases monotonically toward a plateau, which is the maximum information transmittable per stimulus for the particular range of stimuli employed. We demonstrate that although the maximum information transmitted is an attribute of the stimulus continuum itself, the shape of the curve is an empirical property of the stimulus-response matrix, which is determined, in part, by maintaining a constant stimulus category width. Therefore, in principle, each curve of information transmitted vs number of stimulus categories can be determined by a single point: the rightmost point on the graph. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.