Psychophysics,

psychophysical methods,
and signal detection theory
 Today’s lecture

• Introduction to psychophysics
• Thresholds and psychometric functions
• Psychophysical methods
• Signal detection theory
 What is psychophysics?

• The study of the relationship between physical stimuli and their

subjective correlates, or percepts [Wikipedia]
• The scientific study of the relation between stimulus and sensation
[Gescheider, 1976]
• Central idea: measurements of behavioural parameters (accuracy,
reaction time, sensory thresholds) can be used to infer mental state
(percept) of subjects
 What can psychophysics be used for?

• Sensory system neurophysiology/neuropsychology

– Sensory limits of vision, hearing, touch…
– Interspecies comparison (e.g., monkeys vs humans)
– Inferring neuronal mechanisms (e.g. illusions, after-effects)
• Experimental psychology
– Visuomotor interactions
– Perception of speed, motion
– Attention
• Quantitative measurement of perceptual states
– Diagnostic tool (e.g., vision tests)
– Assessment tool (e.g., therapeutic effectiveness)
 Example: treatment of anorexia

• Distorted self-image in anorexia: subjects perceive themselves as

disproportionally overweight
• Suppose you want to test effectiveness of therapy to improve self-
image (reduce distortion). How can its effectiveness be quantified?
• Use psychophysical methods to identify “ideal body proportions”
(using manipulated photos of subjects with different shape/weight)
as a threshold: perceptual boundary between too fat / too thin)
• Measure ideal proportions before & after therapy
• Test difference (if any) statistically for effectiveness of therapy
 Example: treatment of anorexia

• Show photos of subjects 100 Before therapy

manipulated (Photoshop)
to show different body size

(% images judged too fat)

(BMI)
After therapy
• Subjects have to rate

Perceived shape
photos as “too thin” or
“too fat”; measure % 50 %
judged “too fat” 50
threshold
• Fit psychometric function
to data
– Note shape (logistic)
• Perceptual boundary
(threshold): BMI where
50% of photos judged “too 0
fat” Body mass index (BMI)
 The power of psychophysics

• Quantitative - objective scale of measurement

• Does not suffer from subjectivity of introspection
• Can be used to study “pure” mental phenomena - e.g. attention
• Valid inter-subject, inter-species, and inter-method comparisons
– E.g. colour perception in humans and bees
– Sensitivity of neurons vs sensitivity of brains (humans)
• Can be used to study subliminal percepts (e.g. above-chance
recognition without awareness)
• Can identify (possibly subconscious) response bias
 The concept of thresholds

• Detection threshold (classical definition): smallest detectable

stimulus intensity (energy) (that yields a sensory percept)
– Threshold for sight (weakest detectable light): about 10 photons!
– Threshold for sound (weakest detectable air vibration): about the diameter
of an atom!
• Discrimination threshold : smallest detectable difference between
two stimuli (that yields a perceptual difference)
– Smallest detectable difference in orientation of two lines
– Smallest difference in colour corresponding to a colour category change
• Thresholds correspond to a perceptual boundary
• Thresholds can be measured quantitatively
 Psychophysical methods

• Method of limits
• Method of adjustment
• Method of constant stimuli
• Adaptive methods
– Staircases
– Adaptive versions of constant stimuli
 Detecting stimuli in noise:
Signal Detection Theory (SDT)
• How stimuli are detected/discriminated against background noise
• How to make decisions in the presence of uncertainty
• How to make optimal decisions from ambiguous data
• How to make good decisions from bad information
• SDT explains why shape of psychometric function varies with
noise
• SDT explains how a subject’s criterion (response bias) affects
decisions and how to measure it
• SDT allows measurement of sensitivity (ability to make correct
responses/decisions) regardless of criterion/bias
 Origin of SDT: WW2 radar operator

• Task: warn of incoming aircraft Radar screen

• Are the blobs enemy aircraft? Or
just noise (e.g. clouds)?
• Decision depends on subjective
criterion: how big must the blobs
be to be aircraft
• Decision has consequences:
– If you miss an aircraft, people
might get killed
– If you mistake noise for aircraft,
fuel, manpower & resources are
wasted
 Decision outcomes & consequences
SIGNAL: are the blobs real enemy aircraft?
yes no

yes Hit False alarm

DECISION:
should you alert the
air force? Correct
no Miss
reject
 Decision depends on criterion

• Low criterion: alert for every blob: make sure you never miss -
but many false alarms
• High criterion: only alert for really big blobs: no false alarms - but
many misses
• Which criterion is “best” (optimal)?
• Depends on the costs of making errors...
• which errors are acceptable...
• but also on how good your information is (uncertainty)
 Summary of SDT

• Decisions (perceptual judgments) are always made in the presence of

noise (internal/neural and external/physical)
• Decisions are made with respect to a criterion (response bias)
• Criterion is variable & reflects probability of stimulus and payoffs/
consequences of decision
• Performance (hit rate) is a biased measure - depends on criterion
• There is a trade-off between hit rate and false alarm rate
• Sensitivity/discriminability - the ability to discriminate a stimulus from
noise - is independent of the criterion
• d’ is a measure of discriminability that is insensitive to criterion
• d’ can be computed from the hit rate (proportion of stimuli detected when
present) and the false alarm rate (proportion of stimuli reported when not
present)