Development and experimental evaluation of psychophysical models of uncertainty and multidimensionality

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The purpose of this research project was to develop psychophysical models incorporating stimulus uncertainty and multi-dimensional sensory scales, and to examine the effects of stimulus uncertainty and multi-dimensionality in psychophysical experiments.In the model development, stimulus uncertainty and multi-dimensionality was incorporated into a Thurstonian model. We expressed variance of sensory magnitude as a function of stimulus uncertainty, and modeled sensory distributions and judgment criteria in multidimensional space. Due to technical difficulties, the model has not been completed yet.In the experiments, we manipulated uncertainty in frequency and spatial location of target tones, and examined the interaction between the two dimensions on intensity resolution. The results showed that uncertainty in either dimension lowered intensity resolution, and that the effects of frequency cueing depended on location uncertainty (Futakuchi et al., in press ; Futakuchi ＆ Mori, submitted ; Mori ＆ Futakuchi, 1999).We also examined the interaction of spatial location and luminance on orientation sensitivity in visual search experiments. The results showed that orientation sensitivity depended on location uncertainty, luminance, and contrast against the background (Mori, Kataoka, ＆ Kusano, submitted ; Ohtani ＆ Mori, submitted).