Further Applications of Blank Trials
Marvin Levine · 2022
The blank-trial probe provided an aperture through which underlying processes could be viewed. Blank trials were employed with four-dimensional, two-response tasks. Two studies were subsequently performed in which the probe was applied to eight-dimensional and three-response problems, respectively. These may be briefly described. The S’s memory for the stimuli of individual feedback trials was also determined from the H-probe data. A typical serial-position curve was obtained: Ss tended to remember some of the stimulus information both from the first and from the most recent trials. No memory was evident for intermediate stimuli. The results not only demonstrated memory effects in this more complex problem, but suggested that Ss remembered Hs primarily, that most of the stimuli were forgotten. The applications of blank-trial probes are less exploratory and more concerned with the properties of probes.