Intensity discrilnination: Performance in three paradigms

Performance in the following auditory intensity-discrimination paradigms was compared: (1) 2IFC, (2) single-interval rating with an intensity cue preceding each observation interval, and (3) single-interval rating with no cue. ROCs obtained in the single-interval conditions could be well approximated by assuming that the underlying distributions were both normal and had equal variance. No large difference was observed between performance in the cue and the no-cue conditions. The normalized separation of the means for 2IFC was approximately twice the corresponding estimate for the single-interval conditions. i.e., d ₂ = 1.91 d ₁. This is consistent with the hypothesis that the O in intensity-discrimination tasks bases his decisions on the difference between the observed input and that of a noisy stored reference. The familiar result that d ₂ = (2) ^1/2 d ₁ can be predicted for simple detection.