VISUAL PSYCHOPHYSICS

By: Fatemeh Karimpour 8906244

1)Physiology Human visual system: 2)Psychophysics

Definition of Psychophysics
Psychophysics is the scientific study of the relationships between physically measured stimuli and the sensations and perceptions of those stimuli.

Psychophysical Techniques
Threshold & Scaling Experiments.

Threshold techniques
include detection, discrimination, and matching experiments. They are designed to measure visual sensitivity to small changes in stimuli, or perceptual quality

Scaling techniques
are designed to produce a relationship between physical and perceptual magnitudes.

Hierarchy of Scales
1. 2. 3. 4. Nominal Ordinal Interval ratio

Nominal

Ordinal

Interval

Ratio

Threshold & Scaling: A Historical Perspective on Weber, Fechner, and Stevens

Ernst Heinrich Weber

Webers law: I/I=K =K

Fechner
Fechners law
Perceived sensation constant

Measured physical
intensity

S = k Log (I)

k k

= =

/ /

S.S. Steven
Stevens' power law S=kI =k

Psychophysical Methods: Threshold Techniques

1) absolute : determines the minimum amount of stimulus necessary to be detected 2) Differences : determine the smallest change detectable from a given stimulus

three classical types of psychophysical techniques used for determining thresholds

Method of Adjustment Method of Limits Method of Constant Stimuli

Method of Adjustment
Advantages: Fast & very Easy Disadvantages: Different starting points thresholds

different

Method of Limits

Y Y N N N

Method of Constant Stimuli

 Yes-No  Forced choice

2AFC

4AFC

Matching Techniques

Psychophysical Methods: Scaling Techniques

Rank order experiments Rating and Category scales Partition scaling