Signal Detection Mechanisms, Models, and Applications

This volume is based on the 10th annual Harvard Symposium for the Quantitative Analysis of Behavior. The first Harvard Symposium was devoted to signal-detection analyses of reinforcement and choice behavior. The present volume reprises the original signal- detection theme, incorporating additional insights based on experimental and theoretical analyses undertaken during the years separating the two conferences. This collection illustrates how signal-detection theory, first advanced to account for performance in threshold-level sensory discrimination, has broadened to encompass a variety of psychological problems involving discriminations between confusable stimuli. The approach is quantitative in its emphasis on estimation of independent parameters of the discrimination process, and analytical in its efforts to separate the determiners of discriminability and bias and to identify the mechanisms of their operation. Above all, the book is broadly integrative in its approach to diverse problems. This volume is based on the 10th annual Harvard Symposium for the Quantitative Analysis of Behavior. The first Harvard Symposium was devoted to signal-detection analyses of reinforcement and choice behavior. The present volume reprises the original signal- detection theme, incorporating additional insights based on experimental and theoretical analyses undertaken during the years separating the two conferences.

Contents: M.L. Commons, Preface. J.A. Nevin, M.C. Davison, M.L. Commons, An Introduction to Mechanisms, Models, and Applications of Signal Detection. Part IMechanisms. W.J. McGill, M.C. Teich, Auditory Signal Detection and Amplification in a Neural Transmission Network. B. Alsop, Behavioral Models of Detection and Detection Models of Choice. M. Davison, Stimulus Discriminability, Contingency Discriminability, and Complex Stimulus Control. Part II:Models. J.G. Fetterman, Discrimination of Temporal Same-Different Relations by Pigeons. W.K. Honig, Discriminability and Distinctiveness in Complex Arrays of Simple Elements. S. Chase, E.J. Heinemann, Memory Limitations in Human and Animal Signal Detection. M.L. Commons, M. Woodford, E.J. Trudeau, How Each Reinforcer Contributes to Value: "Noise" Must Reduce Reinforcer Value Hyperbolically. A.W. Logue, M.L. Rodriguez, Signal Detection and Matching: Analyzing Choice on Concurrent Schedules. A.A. Wright, A Detection and Decision Process Model of Matching to Sample. Part IIIApplications. K.G. White, Psychophysics of Direct Remembering. D.C. McCarthy, Behavioral Detection Theory: Some Implications for Applied Human Research. J.A. Nevin, Signal Detection Analysis of Illusions and Heuristics.