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Articles

Response Specificity in Psychophysiology

Published Online:https://doi.org/10.1027//0269-8803.14.2.115

Abstract In the field of response specificity, we are faced with a great diversity of specificity measures and definitions which make it difficult to compare the results presented in the literature. The objective of this paper is to assess different specificity calculations (individual, situational, and motivational response specificity) and to elucidate the underlying meaning of those measures which are based on correlations and on specific sources of variance. It will be shown that an approach on the basis of variance components is suitable to elucidate different specificity measures. The main advantage of this approach is that it explicitly describes the frame of reference of the specificity measures and that it clarifies the relationships between specificity, consistency, and covariation. An empirical investigation is presented which demonstrates the application of the approach and which gives an idea of the magnitude of the differences between the specificity measures. Special features (averaging procedures, fixed/random factors) are discussed and recommendations for further research are derived.

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