PSYE311 Психофизика

Анотация:

The course “Psychophysics” covers the basic theories and models of human perceptual and cognitive performance of tasks that involve detection, discrimination and scaling of various types of stimuli. Measurement procedures and specific performance indexes are derived on the basis of the models. It is shown how the procedures and indexes are used in psychological studies as well as in applied psychology – evaluation of human individuals, condition of observation and diagnostic methods. Exercises and class-room demonstrations of the standard procedures for data collection and interpretation are involved in the course.

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Психология (на английски език)

Преподавател(и):

проф. Стефан Матеев  д.н.
гл. ас. Кирил Костов  д-р

Описание на курса:

Компетенции:

The students will know:

-the basic models and theories in the field of human performance of detection, discrimination and scaling

- the standard procedures for gathering empirical data from psychophysical studies and their interpretation

The students will be able:

- to plan and carry out psychophysical experiments

- to evaluate and compare individuals and groups of individuals in respect to their abilities to perform perceptual and cognitive tasks

- to analyze diagnostic methods, also on the basis of archive data

- to read and understand texts in the field of psychology of perception and cognitive science


Предварителни изисквания:
The students are expected to have good knowledge of the high-school math. Knowledge in statistics is welcome.

Форми на провеждане:
Редовен

Учебни форми:
Лекция

Език, на който се води курса:
Английски

Теми, които се разглеждат в курса:

1. Goals and objectives of psychophysics. Measurement and scales of measurement. Introduction to the detection task

2. The “yes-no” procedure. Basic events and matrices. The performance of the “perfect” and “unable” observers

3. Detection theory. Index for performance d’. Index for criterion C.

4. Index “percent correct responses”. Use and misuse of the index. Correction for guessing for the “yes-no” method.

5. Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC). Alternative indexes for evaluating performance

6. Exercises and Test 1

7. The two-alternative forced choice (2AFC) procedure. Forced choice with more than two alternatives. Correction for guessing.

8. Problems with determining “goodness” of performance and ways to solve them. “Same-different” procedure. “Triangular” methods.

9. Accuracy of performance. The measurement of subjective equality. Psychometric curve and its analysis

10. Precision of performance. The discrimination threshold. Weber’s law and Weber’s fraction

11. Scaling of stimuli that can and cannot be measured physically. The psychophysical function. The method of paired comparisons and its relation with the performance index d’.

12. Scaling as a geometrical problem. The role of the response variances. Agreement and consistency of the observers. The problem with the cyclic responses and its solution by multidimensional scaling

13. Direct scaling methods. Direct magnitude estimation. The psychophysical function and its interpretation. Categorical judgment and equal appearing intervals. Evaluation of the scaling methods.

14. The response time. Simple and choice reaction. The speed-accuracy trade-off. Measurement of temporal thresholds

15. Exercises and Test 2

Литература по темите:

1. Матеев, С. (2011) Начала на психофизиката.София, НБУ

2. Luce, R.D. (1986) Response times. New York: Oxford University Press

3. MacMillan, N.A. and Creelman, C.D. (2005) Detection Theory: A user's guide. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Ass.

4. Schiffman, H.R. (2003) Psychophysics. In: Davis, S.F. (Ed) Handbook of research methods in experimental psychology, Chapter 20. Oxford, Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

5. Swets, J.A. (1996) Signal detection theory and ROC analysis in psychology and diagnostics. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Ass.

6. Thurstone, L.L. (1959) The measurement of values. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press

7. Torgerson, W.S. (1958) Theory and methods of scaling. New York: John Willey

Средства за оценяване:

Two tests during the semester