Exposing the Hidden Ideal

Comparisons against an Ideal are not comparisons of differences in magnitude but rather differences in similarity. C. H. Coombs proposed that the process of comparison might be of a different nature than that postulated by the Law of Comparative Judgment. Rather than comparing stimuli against each other, stimuli could be compared against an Ideal, a theoretical stimulus most favored of those qualitative stimuli. The nearer a stimulus was to the …