MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT CLASSICAL PSYCHOPHYSICS AND THE MEASUREMENT OF RESPONSE BIAS

Misconceptions exist about the ability of classical psychophysical tec hniques to measure separately the sensory and nonsensory (response bia s) factors in a discrimination task. The views of the early researcher s in psychophysics are reviewed. The manner in which the method of con stant stimuli gives separate measures of sensory sensitivity and respo nse bias is illustrated. Modern derivatives of classical psychophysica l techniques which estimate both sensory and nonsensory components are described. Finally, data indicating a correspondence between sensory and nonsensory factors obtained with various psychophysical techniques are reviewed.