A common signal detection model accounts for both perception and discrimination of the watercolor effect

作者：Devinck Frederic; Knoblauch Kenneth^*

来源：Journal of Vision, 2012, 12(3): 19.

DOI：10.1167/12.3.19

• psychophysics
• scaling
• signal detection theory
• color vision
• assimilation
• watercolor effect

Establishing the relation between perception and discrimination is a fundamental objective in psychophysics, with the goal of characterizing the neural mechanisms mediating perception. Here, we show that a procedure for estimating a perceptual scale based on a signal detection model also predicts discrimination performance. We use a recently developed procedure, Maximum Likelihood Difference Scaling (MLDS), to measure the perceptual strength of a long-range, color, filling-in phenomenon, the Watercolor Effect (WCE), as a function of the luminance ratio between the two components of its generating contour. MLDS is based on an equal-variance, Gaussian, signal detection model and yields a perceptual scale with interval properties. The strength of the fill-in percept increased 10-15 times the estimate of the internal noise level for a 3-fold increase in the luminance ratio. Each observer%26apos;s estimated scale predicted discrimination performance in a subsequent paired-comparison task. A common signal detection model accounts for both the appearance and discrimination data. Since signal detection theory provides a common metric for relating discrimination performance and neural response, the results have implications for comparing perceptual and neural response functions.

• 出版日期2012