Response Mode and Choice Consistency: A Test of Unfolding Theory

Coombs, Donnell, and Kirk (1978. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 4, 497-512), in a study of risk preferences, collected data using both pick 1 and reject $ response modes. Although the preference orders derived from the two response modes were identical, the pick data contained a greater number of inconsistencies than the reject data. In the present study, predictions were derived from unfolding theory (Coombs, 1964. A theory of data. New York: Wiley) regarding the relative consistency of pick and reject response modes. An experiment performed as a test of these predictions supported the unfolding model suggesting that differences in inconsistency between response modes could be attributed to the fineness of the grid of working midpoints imposed upon the choice process by the response mode.