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An experiment on information integration

Abstract

This experiment is about the merging of information from disparate sources. Two theories of

information integration were tested in a single participant 3x3 factorial experiment. And also

possible hypothesis that different pieces of information have an effect on each other when

combined to form an impression.

Introduction

There are two theories about information integration one is the addictive and another is the

theory called multiplicative (e.g. Anderson,1971 and Birnbaum, 1971). The addictive theory

consider that each piece of information is added together to form a concept. Also this theory

considers that each piece of information does not affect each other. The multiplicative theory

explains that each piece of information relate to each other and affects each other to form a

concept.

Method

This was a single participant experiment. The material was a list of 45 pairs of words. One word

was a profession and one word was adjective description of that profession. This was a 3x3

factorial design with three levels of personality information three level of profession information.

Each level of personality information was classified in Positive (P), Moderate (M) and Negative

(N). There were three professions: Doctor (D), Teacher (T), Thief (Th). The participant rated his

impression from 1 to 10 if he thought highly (10) or poorly (1) about each pair of word. There

were 45 trials. The independent variable was the different types of information. And the

dependent variable was the impression from the participant about the pair of words.

Results

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The average impression for each profession was: Doctor 5.6, Teacher 5.2 and Thief 2.2. The

average for Positive Personality for Doctor was 10. The average for Positive Personality for

Teacher was 9.6. The average Positive Personality for Thief was 2.6. The average Moderate

Personality for Doctor was 4.8. The average Moderate Personality for Teacher was 3.8. The

average for Moderate Personality for Thief was 2.2. And the average for Negative personality for

each profession was: Doctor 2.2, Teacher 2.2 and Thief 1.8. There was a main effect of

personality information. The results are shown in the Figure 1 Impression rating as a function of

Personality and profession information shows that there was a interaction.

Figure 1. Impression rating as a function of Personality and profession information

Discussion

109.6

2.6

4.8

3.8

2.22.2 2.21.8

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

P M N

D

T

Th

Personality Information

Impression rating vs. Personality information

Impression

Rating

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It was found that there was an interaction and there was an effect of personality information on

impression ratings. The impression ratings depend on the type of profession supporting the

multiplicative theory of information integration.

References

Andreson, N. H. (1971) Integration Theory and Attitude Change.Psychological Review, 78, 171-

206.

Birnbaum, M. H., Parducci, A., & Gifford, R. K. (1971). Contextual effects in information

integration.Journal of Experimental Psychology, 88, 158-170.