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The psychophysical method of limits: What actually happens in a nonlinear context?
Author(s) -
Gregson Robert A. M.
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
british journal of mathematical and statistical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.157
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 2044-8317
pISSN - 0007-1102
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8317.1992.tb00987.x
Subject(s) - outlier , psychophysics , monotone polygon , nonlinear system , bayesian probability , mathematics , computer science , statistical physics , algorithm , econometrics , statistics , perception , psychology , physics , geometry , quantum mechanics , neuroscience
The details of response distributions in the method of limits are known to violate both simple assumptions of monotone increasing stimulus–response functions, and the derived idea that change points on such functions, those points where sensory phenomenology changes abruptly, are strictly ordered correspondingly. The predictions of nonlinear psychophysics include mappings from responses back onto stimuli which are not single‐valued. Such predictions imply that outliers to change point distributions expressed in physical units will exist under some conditions. The detection of outliers is tractable from a Bayesian approach. An experiment using fractionation of perceived brightness by continuous response adjustment is used as an illustrative example both for theory and for statistical analyses.