Psychophysics: A Practical Introduction

Psychophysics: A Practical Introduction, Second Edition, is the primary scientific tool for understanding how the physical world of colors, sounds, odors, movements, and shapes translates into the sensory world of sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell; in other words, how matter translates into mind.

This timely revision provides a unique introduction to the techniques for researching and understanding how the brain translates the external physical world to the internal world of sensation. The revision expands and refines coverage of the basic tools of psychophysics research and better integrates the theory with the supporting software.

The new edition continues to be the only book to combine, in a single volume, the principles underlying the science of psychophysical measurement and the practical tools necessary to analyze data from psychophysical experiments. The book, written in a tutorial style, will appeal to new researchers as well as to seasoned veterans. This introduction to psychophysics research methods will be of interest to students, scholars and researchers within sensory neuroscience, vision research, behavioral neuroscience, and the cognitive sciences.

Presents a large variety of analytical methods explained for the non-expertProvides a novel classification scheme for psychophysics experiments Disseminates the pros and cons of different psychophysical procedures Contains practical tips for designing psychophysical experiments

• Dedication
• About the Authors
• Preface to the Second Edition
• Acknowledgments
• Chapter 1. Introduction and Aims
  • 1.1. What is Psychophysics?
  • 1.2. Aims of the Book
  • 1.3. Organization of the Book
  • 1.4. What's New in the Second Edition?
• Chapter 2. Classifying Psychophysical Experiments
  • 2.1. Introduction
  • 2.2. Tasks, Methods, and Measures
  • 2.3. Dichotomies
  • 2.4. Classification Scheme
  • Further Reading
  • Exercises
• Chapter 3. Varieties of Psychophysical Procedures
  • 3.1. Introduction
  • 3.2. Performance-Based Procedures
  • 3.3. Appearance-Based Procedures
  • 3.4. Further Design Details
  • Further Reading
• Chapter 4. Psychometric Functions
  • 4.1. Introduction
  • 4.2. Section A: Practice
  • 4.3. Section B: Theory and Details
  • Further Reading
  • Exercises
• Chapter 5. Adaptive Methods
  • 5.1. Introduction
  • 5.2. Up/Down Methods
  • 5.3. “Running Fit” Methods: The Best PEST and Quest
  • 5.4. The Psi Method and Variations
  • Exercises
• Chapter 6. Signal Detection Measures
  • 6.1. Introduction
  • 6.2. Section A: Practice
  • 6.3. Section B: Theory
  • Further Reading
  • Exercises
• Chapter 7. Summation Measures
  • 7.1. Introduction
  • 7.2. Part A: Summation Modeled under Signal Detection Theory (SDT)
  • 7.3. Part B: Summation Modeled under High-Threshold Theory (HTT)
  • Further Reading
• Chapter 8. Scaling Methods
  • 8.1. Introduction
  • 8.2. Discrimination Scales
  • 8.3. Maximum Likelihood Difference Scaling (MLDS)
  • 8.4. Partition Scaling
  • Further Reading
  • Exercise
• Chapter 9. Model Comparisons
  • 9.1. Introduction
  • 9.2. Section A: Statistical Inference
  • 9.3. Section B: Theory and Details
  • 9.4. Some Alternative Model Comparison Methods
  • Further Reading
  • Exercises
• Quick Reference Guide
• List of Acronyms
• Index