Two procedures for estimating internal noise

Spiegel, Murray F.; Green, David M.

doi:10.1121/1.386583

Cited by 40 publications

(39 citation statements)

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“…The double-pass procedure was developed to directly estimate the total amount of internal noise, both additive and multiplicative, relative to external noise, in the perceptual system for each stimulus (signal and external noise) condition (Ahumada, 1967;Burgess & Colborne, 1988;Gilkey, Frank, & Robinson, 1978Green, 1964;Spiegel & Green, 1981). In comparison, the equivalent input noise method with a single-TvC function was developed to estimate the magnitude of a single fixed (additive) noise source across all the external noise conditions.…”

Section: Double-pass Agreementmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In fact, there is ample evidence both from psychophysics (Burbeck & Kelly, 1981;Burgess & Colborne, 1988;Foley, 1994;Klein & Levi, 1985;Legge & Foley, 1980;Lu & Sperling, 1996;G. Sperling, 1989;Stromeyer & Klein, 1974;Watson & Solomon, 1997) and from neurophysiology (e.g., Albrecht & Geisler, 1991;Albrecht & Hamilton, 1982;Bonds, 1991;Derrington & Lennie, 1981;Heeger, 1993;Kaplan & Shapley, 1982;Ohzawa, Sclar, & Freeman, 1982;Sclar, Maunsell, & Lennie, 1990) that the perceptual system is limited by a form of noise whose amplitude is directly related to the total amount of contrast energy in the stimulus.The double-pass procedure was developed to directly estimate the total amount of internal noise, both additive and multiplicative, relative to external noise, in the perceptual system for each stimulus (signal and external noise) condition (Ahumada, 1967;Burgess & Colborne, 1988;Gilkey, Frank, & Robinson, 1978Green, 1964;Spiegel & Green, 1981). In comparison, the equivalent input noise method with a single-TvC function was developed to estimate the magnitude of a single fixed (additive) noise source across all the external noise conditions.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Characterizing observers using external noise and observer models: Assessing internal representations with external noise.

Lü¹,

Dosher²

2008

Psychological Review

229

347

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External noise methods and observer models have been widely used to characterize the intrinsic perceptual limitations of human observers and changes of the perceptual limitations associated with cognitive, developmental, and disease processes by highlighting the variance of internal representations. The authors conducted a comprehensive review of the 5 most prominent observer models through the development of a common formalism. They derived new predictions of the models for a common set of behavioral tests that were compared with the data in the literature and a new experiment. The comparison between the model predictions and the empirical data resulted in very strong constraints on the observer models. The perceptual template model provided the best account of all the empirical data in the visual domain. The choice of the observer model has significant implications for the interpretation of data from other external noise paradigms, as well as studies using external noise to assay changes of perceptual limitations associated with observer states. The empirical and theoretical development suggests possible parallel developments in other sensory modalities and studies of high-level cognitive processes.Keywords: signal detection theory, internal representation, observer model, perceptual template, internal noise Human decisions are based on internal representations of information. Understanding how stimuli are represented internally is one of the classic problems in psychology. This article examines how modifying an external stimulus with external noise can provide insight into how the stimulus is processed by the human observer. We conducted a systematic and comprehensive review of the external noise paradigms and observer models widely used in characterizing the internal response properties of human observers. The observer approach builds on the broadly applicable framework of signal detection theory (SDT) by elaborating the relationships between external stimuli and the internal response distributions that form the basis for decision. The empirical tests introduce external noise-either masking noise or variation in the relevant stimulus dimension-to provide a reference for characterizing and quantifying the limiting factors in perceptual sensitivity. The current review, analysis, and empirical test focus on visual perception. Some of the model properties, especially the empirical findings, may be modality specific. Still, this framework and the findings could serve as an example for parallel development of the empirical methods and theoretical models in other sensory modalities. The model development and testing also have major implications for applications of the external noise paradigms in understanding the mechanisms underlying changes of perceptual sensitivity in different cognitive, disease, and/or developmental states. Internal Response DistributionsSDT provides a general framework for analyzing human decision making in perceptual and cognitive tasks (Green & Swets, 1966;Macmillan & Creelman, 1991). In a ...

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Section: Double-pass Agreementmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterizing observers using external noise and observer models: Assessing internal representations with external noise.

Lü¹,

Dosher²

2008

Psychological Review

229

347

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Analysis of IC model responses could be tested with responses from the LRT model. Last, internal noise (Spiegel and Green, 1981) was not included in the current signal-processing type model. However, internal noise could be introduced in physiological models as an additive or multiplicative noise to further understand the difference of detection performance among individual listeners.…”

Section: Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Predictions of diotic tone-in-noise detection based on a nonlinear optimal combination of energy, envelope, and fine-structure cues

Mao

Vosoughi

Carney

2013

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

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Tone-in-noise detection has been studied for decades; however, it is not completely understood what cue or cues are used by listeners for this task. Model predictions based on energy in the critical band are generally more successful than those based on temporal cues, except when the energy cue is not available. Nevertheless, neither energy nor temporal cues can explain the predictable variance for all listeners. In this study, it was hypothesized that better predictions of listeners' detection performance could be obtained using a nonlinear combination of energy and temporal cues, even when the energy cue was not available. The combination of different cues was achieved using the logarithmic likelihood-ratio test (LRT), an optimal detector in signal detection theory. A nonlinear LRT-based combination of cues was proposed, given that the cues have Gaussian distributions and the covariance matrices of cue values from noise-alone and tone-plus-noise conditions are different. Predictions of listeners' detection performance for three different sets of reproducible noises were computed with the proposed model. Results showed that predictions for hit rates approached the predictable variance for all three datasets, even when an energy cue was not available.

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“…One general strategy that has been used previously to study internal noise in adult listeners is to observe the effects of manipulating the variability of some physical parameter of the stimulus, such as intensity, and observing the effects on listener performance (Jesteadt et al, 2003;Spiegel and Green, 1981). In this approach, the magnitude of change in performance due to changes in the variability of the physical parameter is used to draw inferences about the neural variability (or internal noise) associated with the detection process.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Jesteadt et al, 2003). Another source of variability is the within-interval fluctuation of a stimulus (Spiegel and Green, 1981), such as that characterizing random noise samples. Both experiments reported here use the general approach of assessing performance in the face of stimulus variability and making inferences about the magnitude of internal noise based on susceptibility to external noise.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development and the role of internal noise in detection and discrimination thresholds with narrow band stimuli

Buss

Hall

Grose

2006

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

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The experiments reported here examine the role of internal noise in the detection of a tone in narrow band noise and intensity discrimination for narrow band stimuli in school-aged children as compared to adults. Experiment 1 used 20-Hz wide bands of Gaussian and low-fluctuation noise centered at 500 Hz to assess the role of stimulus fluctuation in detection of a 500-Hz pure tone. Additional conditions tested whether performance was based on level and/or level-independent cues. Children's thresholds were elevated with respect to adults, and whereas adults benefited from the reduced fluctuation of low-fluctuation noise, children did not. Results from both groups were consistent with the use of a level cue. Experiment 2 estimated intensity increment thresholds for a narrow band Gaussian noise or a pure tone, either with or without a presentation-by-presentation level rove, an additional source of level variability. Stimulus variability was found to have a larger effect on performance of adults as compared to children, a rather counterintuitive finding if one thinks of children as more prone to informational masking introduced by stimulus variability. Both tone-innoise and intensity discrimination data were consistent with the hypothesis that children's performance is limited by greater levels of internal noise.

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Two procedures for estimating internal noise

Cited by 40 publications

References 0 publications

Characterizing observers using external noise and observer models: Assessing internal representations with external noise.

Characterizing observers using external noise and observer models: Assessing internal representations with external noise.

Predictions of diotic tone-in-noise detection based on a nonlinear optimal combination of energy, envelope, and fine-structure cues

Development and the role of internal noise in detection and discrimination thresholds with narrow band stimuli

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