Sensation and Perception

Signal Detection Theory

Three Psychophysical Methods
 Determine perceptual sensitivity by measuring
the point at which a stimulus is reported as
being present (detection).
Detection: Absolute Threshold
 Detection: Absolute Threshold

92.9%

46.5% 23.2% 11.6% 5.8% 2.9% 1.5% 0%

The Method of Limits
 Stimulus intensity is either increased or
decreased by a fixed amount from trial to trial.

 Participants answer: Yes (see) or no

The Method of Limits

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

“Report when you stop

seeing the target.”

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

“Report when you see

the target.”
4.5

3.8

3.1

2.5
1.8
1.1

0.4

-
2.8 3.45 1.45 1.45 2.29
Simple Threshold
0% 1.5% 2.9% 5.8% 11.6% 23.2% 46.5%

0/4 ¼ 2/4 ¾ ¾ 4/4 4/4

0% 25% 50% 75% 75% 100% 100% Perfomance

100%
75%
50%
25%
0% 0% 1.5% 2.9% 5.8% 11.6% 23.2% 46.5%
Simple Threshold
Psychometric Function
 No Yes
0% 1.5% 2.9% 5.8% 11.6% 23.2% 46.5%

No Yes
0% 1.5% 2.9% 5.8% 11.6% 23.2% 46.5%
Objections to Simple Model
 Smooth transition
 Subliminal perception
 Response bias
Signal detection theory
 A model & a data analysis method for
decision problems with uncertainty (noise)
 Originates from World
War II: aircraft detection
on radar signals
 Today: widely used in
psychophysics, medicine,
radiology and
machine learning
Signal detection theory
 Experiment setup:
 A stimulus (signal) is presented or not;
 Observer reports if she/he saw a signal or not
 Calculate how many times the observer detected a signal
when it was presented (hit rate)
 Is the hit rate all we want to know?
Two observers achieved the same hit rate. Are
they certainly behaving the same way?
 NO, we also need to know how many times the
observer said “I see” when there was no signal (false
alarm rate)
Signal detection theory
 Confusion matrix: contains all the information about the
observer’s performance
Signal detection theory
 Confusion matrix: contains all the information about the
observer’s performance
 As columns add up 40 trials
to 100%, it is enough
to know one item 20 = 100% 20 = 100%
from each column
6 = 30%
18 = 90%

14 = 70%
2 = 10%
Signal detection theory
 Perfect detection:

100% 0%

0% 100%
Signal detection theory
 No detection at all (1st example): always
reporting “Seen”

100% 100%

0% 0%
Signal detection theory
 No detection (2nd example): always reporting
“Not seen”

0% 0%

100% 100%
Signal detection theory
 No detection (3rd example): flipping a coin

50% 50%

50% 50%
 Signal detection theory
 No detection (4th example): reporting “Seen” in 30% of
the trials (no matter what is presented)

Rows equal
 no detection

30% = 30%

70% = 70%
Signal detection theory
 Receiver operating characteristic (ROC):

100%

hit rate

false alarm rate 100%

Signal detection theory
 Receiver operating characteristic (ROC):

100%

hit rate

90% 30%

10% 70% false alarm rate 100%

Signal detection theory
 Receiver operating characteristic (ROC):

100%
Perfect detection

hit rate

100% 0%

0% 100% false alarm rate 100%

Signal detection theory
 Receiver operating characteristic (ROC):

100%
No detection:
always “yes”

hit rate

100% 100%

0% 0% false alarm rate 100%

Signal detection theory
 Receiver operating characteristic (ROC):

100%
No detection:
always “no”

hit rate

0% 0%

100% 100% false alarm rate 100%

Signal detection theory
 Receiver operating characteristic (ROC):
No detection: 100%
reporting “yes” in
50% of the trials
(flipping a coin)

hit rate

50% 50%

50% 50% false alarm rate 100%

Signal detection theory
 Receiver operating characteristic (ROC):

No detection: 100%
reporting “yes” in
40% of the trials

hit rate

40% 40%

60% 60% false alarm rate 100%

Signal detection theory
 Receiver operating characteristic (ROC):

No detection: 100%
reporting “yes” in
30% of the trials

hit rate

30% 30%

70% 70% false alarm rate 100%

Signal detection theory
 Receiver operating characteristic (ROC):

No detection: 100%
reporting “yes” in
60% of the trials

hit rate

60% 60%

40% 40% false alarm rate 100%

Signal detection theory
 Receiver operating characteristic (ROC):

100%
Diagonal: no detection

hit rate

false alarm rate 100%

 Signal detection theory
 SDT model:
Sensation SL ≥ β YES
Signal level (SL)
present Sensation Decision
/absent NO
SL < β

Noise Criterion (β)

 No way to remove the noise
 But sensation can be separated from decision by using
ROCs
 Signal detection theory
Sensation SL ≥ β YES
Signal level (SL)
present Sensation Decision
/absent NO
SL < β

(Noise) Criterion (β)

signal criterion signal Without noise:

absent present perfect detection is
probability

possible

sensation level
 Signal detection theory
Sensation SL ≥ β YES
Signal level (SL)
present Sensation Decision
/absent NO
SL < β

(Noise) Criterion (β)

signal criterion signal

absent present
probability

100% 0%

0% 100%

sensation level
 Signal detection theory
Sensation SL ≥ β YES
Signal level (SL)
present Sensation Decision
/absent NO
SL < β

Noise Criterion (β)

signal absent signal
(noise only) present
criterion (signal+noise)
Noise: smears the
distributions
probability

 perfect detection
is impossible
(if the two distributions
overlap)
sensation level online demo
Signal detection theory

Sensation level

Sensation level

http://www-psych.stanford.edu/~lera/psych115s/notes/signal/
Signal detection theory

hit rate
Sensation level

false alarm rate

Sensation level
Signal detection theory
β=6

ROC β=6
curve β = 8

hit rate
β=8
β = 10

β = 10 false alarm rate

 Signal detection theory
 Criterion (β): specifies
where we are on the ROC
curve β
 The ROC curve is specified
by sensory capacities only

hit rate
(discriminability)
probability

false alarm rate

sensation level
Signal detection theory
 β (bias) can be informative about the decision
behavior:
 Balanced: false alarm and
miss rates are equal
 Liberal: the observer
says “yes” whenever balanced
there may be a signal
 Conservative: liberal conservative
decision is yes only
when it is almost
certain that there is probability
a signal

sensation level
Signal detection theory
 Discriminability:
how well the
observer can
separate the
presence of signal
from its absence

 Measured by d’
(discriminability index,
also called sensitivity)

http://www-psych.stanford.edu/~lera/psych115s/notes/signal/
 Signal detection theory
d’: selects the ROC curve
β: specifies a point on the selected
ROC curve
 same information as hit rate &
false alarm rate, but:
hit rate, false alarm rate: β
both reflect sensation & decision
characteristics;
cannot separate the two
d’: depends only on sensation
β: depends only on decision
The two processes
are separated
http://psych.hanover.edu/JavaTest/Media/Chapter2/MedFig.ROC.html
Signal detection theory
How well is it detectable? How sensitive the observer is to the
stimulus?
 Measured by d’
 The higher d’ is, the more the stimulus is detectable
 d’ = 0
 not detectable at all
 It is the difference between the means of the noise (N) and
the signal+noise (SN) distributions, divided by the standard
deviation of the noise (N).
d’ = [SN - N] / N
 It can be estimated from the hit rate and the false
alarm rate.
 Standardize hit & false alarm probabilities:
d’ = z( P(yes|SN) ) - z(P( yes|N) )
SDT Review
 Perceptual decisions are made in the real world, which is full of
noise.
 Perceptual responses are biased with respect to a criterion.
 A criterion level can change based on the preference for
particular outcomes.
 There is a trade-off between hit rate and false alarm rate.
 Sensitivity/discriminability - the ability to discriminate a
stimulus from noise - it is independent of the criterion.
 d’ is a measure of discriminability that is insensitive to the
criterion level.
 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)
Supplementary
 https://eupercebo.unb.br/2019/10/28/psicofisica-moderna-ii-
teoria-de-deteccao-de-sinal-parte-i/

 https://eupercebo.unb.br/2019/10/28/psicofisica-moderna-ii-
teoria-de-deteccao-de-sinal-parte-ii/