Course: Experimental Psychology

Lecture# 4, 5, 6
Psychophysics
Contents

• Psychophysics
• Importance of psychophysics,
• Absolute threshold and differential threshold,
• Just noticeable differences,
• Weber’s law
• Theory of signal detection
When you interact with the world around you, your brain is responding to different
environmental stimuli. Psychologists who study these responses, like light, sound, or tastes, are
part of the field of psychophysics.
Definition of Psychophysics
Have you ever wondered what happens when you eat a juicy watermelon? How does the
grainy texture of that pink fruit get translated into the sensation of sweet, watery, and delicious in
your brain? Scientists who study psychophysics are interested in the processes that occur to
produce your response to the watermelon. Therefore, psychophysics quantitatively investigates
how much of a stimuli we can detect and how we detect differences between stimuli in the
environment with our sensory systems, including vision, auditory, taste, smell, and pain.
The field of psychophysics was pioneered by Gustav Fechner in the 1860s. Fechner
introduced various methods for quantitatively measuring the relationship between stimuli and
perception. Fechner's methods included the method of limits, the method of adjustment, and the
method of constant stimuli. Each method measures our response to a stimulus in a different way.
They are used to measure absolute threshold, or the smallest detectable amount of a stimulus.
For example, if we're looking at your response to watermelon and want to measure your absolute
threshold, we would look for the smallest piece of watermelon that you could taste. If we were
looking at the visual sensation, we would look at the smallest amount of light that you could
detect.

Method of Limits
To measure absolute threshold with the method of limits, a researcher would present the
stimulus in either ascending or descending order to determine the smallest amount detectable.
For example, you would be given a large amount of light and asked if you could see it. On the
next trial, the amount of light would be decreased. This would occur until you report that you can
no longer see the light. This would be the method of descending limits because we start with
something big and work down. In the method of ascending limits, we would start with a small
amount of light and work up.
Method of Constant Stimuli
The method of constant stimuli differs from the method of limits in that it presents the
stimuli in a random order. For example, if I'm looking to see what is the lowest amount of sound
that you can detect, I would randomly present several different tones at different sound levels.
Some would be loud, while others would be quiet. As the observer, your job would be to let me
know when you can or cannot hear the sounds. This method is generally considered the most
accurate method, because it limits the subject from being able to predict a stimulus.
Weber’s Law

The just noticeable difference, also known as the difference threshold, is the smallest
possible difference between two stimuli that can be detected at least half the time. According to
Weber’s Law, this difference threshold is a constant proportion of the original threshold size.
Weber’s law, named for German physiologist Ernst Weber, is a principle of perception which
states that the size of the just noticeable difference varies depending upon its relation to the
strength of the original stimulus. “Whether we can detect a change in the strength of a stimulus
depends on the intensity of the original stimulus. For example, if you are holding a pebble (the
original stimulus), you will notice an increase in weight if a second pebble is placed in your
hand. But if you start off holding a very heavy rock (the original stimulus), you probably won’t
detect an increase in weight when the same pebble is balanced on it. What Weber’s law
underscores is that our psychological experience of sensation is relative. There is no simple, one-
to-one correspondence between the objective characteristics of a physical stimulus, such as the
weight of a pebble, and our psychological experience of it” (Hockenbury & Hockenbury, 2007)
The Difference Threshold
Another type of threshold is the difference threshold. The difference threshold is the smallest
change in a stimulus which a person can detect 50% of the time. The difference threshold is
determined by changing the stimulus varying amounts to see whether a subject can perceive
any difference in the stimulus. The smallest change a person can detect 50% of the time is
called a difference threshold or just-noticeable difference (JND). In testing for just noticeable
differences (JNDs) one must use frequent catch trials during which no change is made.
Sometimes a subject will claim to perceive a change after a catch trial, because people often
perceive what they expect to perceive. If you tell a person to listen for a change in a sound,
that person might claim to hear a change even if none occurred.
Theory of signal detection
Signal Detection
Have you ever done that thing where you could swear you hear your phone ringing or feel it
vibrating in your pocket, but then you go to check it and nobody was calling? Of course you
have. We all have. It's a common occurrence, and there's actually a scientific reason for it. No,
it's not that you're going crazy, and yes, I am aware that this is the first explanation that goes
through everyone's mind. For a long time, psychologists have been interested in how our minds
become aware of stimuli, of factors in the environment around us that can be detected through
the five senses of sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell. How do we notice these stimuli? Why
do we sometimes not notice them, and why do we detect them when they're not really there?
The leading explanation: signal detection theory, which at its most basic, states that the
detection of a stimulus depends on both the intensity of the stimulus and physical/psychological
state of the individual. Basically, we notice things based on how strong they are and on how
much we're paying attention. The theory of signal detection theory evolved from the
development of communications and radar equipment the first half of this century. It migrated to
psychology, initially as part of sensation and perception, in the 50's and 60's as an attempt to
understand some of the features of human behavior when detecting very faint stimuli that were
not being explained by traditional theories of thresholds.
The situation of interest is this:
A person is faced with a stimulus that is very faint or confusing. For simplicity's sake lets us call
this stimulus a signal. The person must make a decision, is the signal there or not. What makes
this situation confusing and difficult is the presences of other mess that is similar to the signal.
Let us call this mess noise.
What makes this different from traditional threshold theories is that the subject makes a decision,
a cognitive act, as to whether the signal is present or not. This basic sensory act of determining
if a stimulus occurred now is understood to have a cognitive component.
Now what can happen in this situation. If the signal is present, the person can decide that it is
present or absent. These outcomes are called hits and misses. If the signal is absent the person
can still decide that the signal is either present or absent. These are called false alarms or
correct rejections (CR) respectively.

A common way to display these outcomes is below in Table 1.

Present Absent

Decision: Present Hit False Alarm

Absent Miss Correct Rejection