Detection Theory

Michael J. Hautus is Head of the Psychophysics Laboratory in the School of Psychology at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. His research interests include quantitative assessment of the functioning of the auditory system, modeling auditory, visual, and flavor judgment, and modeling cognitive processes involved in judgment. Neil A. Macmillan is a retired Professor of Psychology at Brooklyn College, USA. C. Douglas Creelman, deceased, was a Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto, Canada. Both of them were privileged to study with founders of detection theory: Creelman with Wilson Tanner and John Swets at the University of Michigan, Macmillan with David Green and Duncan Luce at the University of Pennsylvania.

PART I. Basic Detection Theory and One-Interval Designs 1. The Yes-No Experiment: Sensitivity 2. The Yes-No Experiment: Response Bias 3. Beyond Binary Responses: The Rating Experiment and Empirical Receiver Operating Characteristics 4. Classification Experiments for One-Dimensional Stimulus Sets 5. Threshold Models and Choice Theory PART II. Multidimensional Detection Theory and Multi-Interval Discrimination Designs 6. Detection and Discrimination of Compound Stimuli: Tools for Multidimensional Detection Theory 7. Comparison (Two-Distribution) Designs for Discrimination 8. Classification Designs: Attention and Interaction 9. Classification Designs for Discrimination 10. Identification of Multidimensional Objects and Multiple Observation Intervals PART III. Stimulus Factors 11. Adaptive Methods for Estimating Empirical Thresholds 12. Components of Sensitivity PART IV. Statistics 13 Statistics and Detection Theory Appendices Appendix 1. Elements of Probability and Statistics Appendix 2. Logarithms and Exponentials Appendix 3. Flowcharts to Sensitivity and Bias Calculations Appendix 4. Some Useful Equations Appendix 5. Tables Appendix 6. Software for Detection Theory Appendix 7. Solutions to Selected Problems