Absolute Judgments Are Relative: A Reinterpretation of Some Psychophysical Ideas

A central theoretical assumption in classical psychophysics is that people judge the intensities of stimulus elements; for example, observers directly report the loudness of a tone or the intensity of a shock. A methodological assumption in classical psychophysics is that averaged data demonstrate this theoretical view. It is shown in this article that both assumptions are wrong and that the psychophysical laws of Weber, Fechner, and Stevens are not general. Rather, psychophysical judgments are made in relation to contexts and memories, measures of which provide new information about psychophysical judgments and new understandings of channel capacity, the local-global distinction, and the source of noise in signal detection theory.

[1]  E. G. Heinemann,et al.  Simultaneous brightness induction as a function of inducing and test-field luminances. , 1955, Journal of experimental psychology.

[2]  G. Lockhead.  Processing dimensional stimuli: a note. , 1972, Psychological review.

[3]  D. M. Green,et al.  Signal detection theory and psychophysics , 1966 .

[4]  G. A. Miller.  THE PSYCHOLOGICAL REVIEW THE MAGICAL NUMBER SEVEN, PLUS OR MINUS TWO: SOME LIMITS ON OUR CAPACITY FOR PROCESSING INFORMATION 1 , 1956 .

[5]  Patrick Suppes,et al.  Representational Measurement Theory , 2002 .

[6]  G R Lockhead,et al.  Range and sequence effects in judgment , 1986, Perception & psychophysics.

[7]  G. Fechner.  Elemente der Psychophysik , 1998 .

[8]  G R Lockhead,et al.  American Psychological Association, Inc. A Memory Model of Sequential Effects in Scaling Tasks , 2022 .

[9]  G. Lockhead,et al.  Sequential effects in absolute judgments of loudness , 1968 .

[10]  G. Lockhead,et al.  Response scales and sequential effects in judgment , 1981, Perception & psychophysics.

[11]  M. Treisman,et al.  American Psychological Association, Inc, A Theory of Criterion Setting With an Application to Sequential Dependencies , 2022 .

[12]  D. Laming.  The measurement of sensation , 1997 .

[13]  H. Pashler.  STEVENS' HANDBOOK OF EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY , 2002 .

[14]  G. Lockhead,et al.  Range effects in successive discrimination. , 1986, Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes.

[15]  S S Stevens,et al.  To Honor Fechner and Repeal His Law: A power function, not a log function, describes the operating characteristic of a sensory system. , 1961, Science.

[16]  F Gravetter,et al.  Criterial range as a frame of reference for stimulus judgment. , 1973, Psychological review.

[17]  G R Lockhead,et al.  Range effects of an irrelevant dimension on classification , 1999, Perception & psychophysics.

[18]  D. M. Green,et al.  Attention bands in absolute identification , 1976 .

[19]  R. Luce,et al.  Measurement, scaling, and psychophysics. , 1988 .