Shifts in Postdiscrimination Gradients Within a Stimulus Dimension Based on Female Waist-to-Hip Ratios. Adam Derenne, R. Michael Breitstein, and Rebecca J. Cicha

Fifteen participants were trained on a within-subjects basis with two discrimination
training conditions and one simple generalization training (control) condition
to determine whether gradient shifts can be obtained within a stimulus dimension
consisting of women’s waist-to-hip ratios (WHRs). In one discrimination
condition, the S– consisted of the “optimal” WHR; in the other, the S– consisted
of the approximate mean WHR for adult women. For all three conditions, the
S+ was an intermediate value. Under both discrimination training conditions,
the generalization gradient was observed to shift away from the S– and toward
extreme values on the opposite end of the dimension; under the control condition,
the gradient was more closely centered on the S+. The results suggest that
the processes involved in gradient shifts can affect judgments of biologically
significant stimuli.