用普适信息度量重新审视HICK律

A Respraisal of Hick's Law with General Information Measures

1953年,Hick把信息量计算引入了反应时的研究,得出反应时随着反应选择可能数的增加而不断增长的公式。但是,在此后的半个多世纪内,人们对反应时与信息量的关系研究,仍只是停留在以实验数据证明或驳斥Hick律,并未对信息的本质和信息量的普适度量作进一步探寻,因而对认知对象辨认的反应时的形成机理研究没有实质进展。本文从审视肯定和反驳Hick律的两方面实验出发,进而分析Shannon信息模型和信息量计算方法对心理学研究的局限性,提出"信息是系统联系状态,关系集","信息量是系统元素数和元素之间关系数的总和",提出对信息量进入心理学研究具有重要意义的"信息单元"概念。在此基础上,进而分析简单辨认任务反应时的形成机理,推论出Hick公式普适的理论条件。

In 1953,Hick proposed a formula of dependence of linear increase of reaction time and degree of choice by applying the Information Theory to psychological problems. In the following half century,most of the research on the response time and information content was foused on the proof or rejection of Hick＇s Law. No work involved in the nature of information and general information,leaving reponse time mechanism research unrevealed. In this article,we begin with analyzing the experiments which prove or reject Hick＇s law. Further,the limitation of Shannon＇s information model and his information measurement applied in psychological problems is analyzed. We define Information to be the linked states or related sets of systems,and present that Information content is the combination of the numbers of elements and their relationships in the system. The new concept ＂information unit＂ will help information content to be applied in psychological research. Based on these results,RT mechanism is analyzed and the general conditon of Hick＇s Law is concluded.