Abstract
Undergraduate students performed one of three levels of processing on each word (15, 30, or 45) presented during a 120-sec interval. Subjects were told in advance that they would be required to estimate the length of the presentation interval (prospective condition) or were presented with an unexpected estimation task (retrospective condition). In the prospective condition, interval estimates were an inverse function of list length when relatively deep levels of processing were required, but were an increasing function of list length when shallow processing was required. In the retrospective condition, estimates were an increasing function of list length and were unaffected by different levels of processing. The interval estimation model proposed by Hicks, Miller, and Kinsbourne (1976) provided a better account of the data than did the storage-size hypothesis of Ornstein (1969).
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Mcclain, L. Interval estimation: Effect of processing demands on prospective and retrospective reports. Perception & Psychophysics 34, 185–189 (1983). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03211347
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03211347