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ON THE PROBLEM OF CATEGORY SCALES IN PSYCHOPHYSICS
Author(s) -
Eisler Hannes
Publication year - 1962
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.743
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1467-9450
pISSN - 0036-5564
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9450.1962.tb01253.x
Subject(s) - psychophysics , generalization , psychology , scale (ratio) , magnitude (astronomy) , point (geometry) , function (biology) , cognitive psychology , statistics , mathematics , perception , mathematical analysis , physics , geometry , quantum mechanics , astronomy , neuroscience , evolutionary biology , biology
E isler , H. On the problem of category scales in psychophysics. Scand. J. Psychol ., 1962, 3 , 81–87.—In the first Part of the paper it is shown that, if three assumptions are granted, the category scale must be logarithmically related to the magnitude scale: K =α log φ +β . In the second part of the paper, the relation K =α log ( kφ+ q) +β is derived, starting from the assumptions that the category scale is a pure function of discrimination and that discrimination is appropriately described by the linear generalization of Weber's law for prothetic continua. We can reconcile these two formulas by defining the zero‐point of the magnitude scale as the point where variability vanishes.