The Construction of Subjective Brightness Scales by the Methods of Single Stimuli and Fractionation
Abstract
When an observer in a discrimination experiment makes a differential response to a stimulus, he is responding with respect to some discriminable characteristic. Discrimin- able characteristics, so defined, are "subjective" only in the sense that they are clearly distinguished from the sti- mulus-correlates. Every stimulus to which the observer can make a verbal response must have given rise to at least one discriminable characteristic. It is, however, probable that every stimulus produces more than one; for example, a visual stimulus can produce such characteristics as hue, brilliance and saturation. Many discriminable characteristics have Imown physical correlates. The measurement of all physical correlates is a problem for the physicist, but the measure- ment of so-called subjective magnitudes is a problem for the psychologist. This statement, of course, presupposes that there is a difference between physical and subjective magnitudes.
Subject Area
Quantitative psychology|Genetics|Experimental psychology|Physiological psychology
Recommended Citation
Italia, Paula M. E, "The Construction of Subjective Brightness Scales by the Methods of Single Stimuli and Fractionation" (1954). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI28621858.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI28621858
