What is the name of the phenomenon in which judgments are influenced by a baseline established through prior experience?

• A. Priming
• B. Adaptation-Level Phenomenon
• C. Contrast effect
• D. Hedonic adaptation

Answer: (B)

Judgments are relative to an internal baseline built from what we’ve experienced before and the surrounding context. This idea, the adaptation-level phenomenon, says that when we evaluate something we compare it to a moving reference point formed by prior experiences. That baseline can shift as our circumstances or surroundings change, so the same stimulus can feel more or less extreme, valuable, or pleasant depending on where our reference point sits. For example, a salary or price might seem reasonable after spending time in a higher-income environment, but seems expensive after being in a lower-income setting. This contrasts with priming, which is about how exposure to one stimulus influences responses to another, or with a contrast effect, which focuses on judgments altered by nearby comparisons right at hand. Hedonic adaptation deals with how we return to a stable level of happiness after changes in life circumstances, not how we judge a given stimulus relative to a baseline from experience.