Ideal observer theory in psychophysics and physiology

An ideal observer is a theoretical device that carries out its assigned task with optimal efficiency. Therefore, its performance is a precise measure of the information available to perform the task. We have created a program that computes the accuracy, in visual discrimination tasks, of an ideal observer operating at the level of photon absorptions in the human photoreceptors. Comparison of ideal-observer performance and human performance in the same vision experiments reveals that many perceptual phenomena previously attributed to neural mechanisms may, in fact, be attributable to variations in the information content of the stimuli at the receptors.

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