Regular Minimality Principle in Relation to Decision Making and Categorization

摘要

A comprehensive mathematical theory of dissimilarity cumulation has been developed, with its applications to both pair-wise comparison judgments and categorization judgments involving stimuli of arbitrary nature and complexity. A theory of regular well-matched stimulus spaces has been developed which generalizes the principles of Regular Minimality and Regular Mediality and has deep implications for psychological and philosophical issues related to distinguishability of similar stimuli. The relation of Regular Minimality to constancy of the minima of discrimination functions and to Thurstonian-type modeling has been investigated on a high level of generality. Experiments have been conducted establishing the conformity of matching judgments/adjustments to the notion of regular well-matched stimulus spaces.