Absolute identification is relative: A reply to Brown, Marley, and Lacouture (2007)

N. Stewart, G. D. A. Brown, and N. Chater (2005) presented a relative judgment model (RJM) of absolute identification, in which the current stimulus is judged relative to the preceding stimulus. S. Brown, A. A. J. Marley, and Y. Lacouture (2007) found that the RIM does not predict their finding of increased accuracy after large stimulus jumps, except at the expense of other effects. In fact, the RIM does predict both the core effects and increased accuracy after large jumps (although it underestimates this effect) when better constrained parameters are estimated from the trial-by-trial raw data rather than from summary plots. Further, a modified RIM, in which the stimulus from two trials ago is sometimes used as a referent, provides a better fit.