ABSTRACT
Psychology has a long history of investigating identification, similarity, and preference judgments. However, until recently no theory attempted to account for all three of these judgments simultaneously, despite the fact that they appear to be strongly related. For example, in making a preference judgment the items in the choice set may first be identified, next the similarity between the different items in the choice set might be estimated, and finally preference can be determined. In 1986, General Recognition Theory (GRT) (Ashby & Perrin, 1988; Ashby & Townsend, 1986; Perrin, 1986) was introduced. One of the strengths of this theory is that it attempts to unify research in identification, similarity, and preference by using a common psychological space to model all three types of responses. Therefore, GRT offers a framework to better understand the perceptual processes associated with these judgments.
