MindPapers: 3.5e. Psychophysics

Albertazzi, Liliana (2002). Phenomenologists and analytics: A question of psychophysics? Southern Journal of Philosophy (Suppl.) 40:27-48. (Google | Edit)

Blomberg, Jaakko (1971). Psychophysics, sensation and information. Ajatus 33:106-137. (Google | Edit)

Boring, Edwin G. (1935). The relation of the attributes of sensation to the dimensions of the stimulus. Philosophy of Science 2 (2):236-245. (Cited by 12 | Google | More links | Edit)

Bradley, Francis H. (1895). What do we mean by the intensity of psychical states. Mind 4 (13):1-27. (Google | More links | Edit)

Horst, Steven (2005). Phenomenology and psychophysics. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 4 (1):1-21. (Cited by 2 | Google | More links | Edit)

Abstract: Recent philosophy of mind has tended to treat “inner” states, including both qualia and intentional states, as “theoretical posits” of either folk or scientific psychology. This article argues that phenomenology in fact plays a very different role in the most mature part of psychology, psychophysics. Methodologically, phenomenology plays a crucial role in obtaining psychophysical results. And more importantly, many psychophysical data are best interpreted as reporting relations between stimuli and phenomenological states, both qualitative and intentional. Three examples are used to argue for this thesis: the Weber-Fechner laws, the Craik-O’Brien-Cornsweet effect, and subjective contour figures. The phenomenological properties that play a role here do so in the role of _data_ that ultimately constrain theoretical work (in this case theory of vision), and not as theoretical posits

Strother, Lars; Van Valkenburg, David & Kubovy, Michael (2003). Toward a psychophysics of perceptual organization using multistable stimuli and phenomenal reports. Axiomathes 13 (3-4). (Cited by 1 | Google | More links | Edit)

Abstract: We explore experimental methods used to study the phenomena of perceptual organization, first studied by the Gestalt psychologists. We describe an application of traditional psychophysics to perceptual organization and offer alternative methods. Among these, we distinguish two approaches that use multistable stimuli: (1) phenomenological psychophysics, in which the observer's response is assumed to accurately and directly reflect perceptual experience; and (2) the interference paradigm, in which an observer's response is evaluated as correct or incorrect because it pertains to a corrigible task, but does not directly reflect the observer's experience. We show that phenomenological psychophysics can yield valuable information about perceptual organization and lends itself to the development of quantitative theory. We discuss some criticisms of the method and argue that the two approaches that use multistable stimuli are complementary. We also compare each of the approaches with traditional psychophysics. We conclude that the several methods are convergent

Ward, James (1876). An attempt to interpret fechner's law. Mind 1 (4):452-466. (Cited by 4 | Google | More links | Edit)

Wertheimer, Max (1923). Laws of organization in perceptual forms. Psycologische Forschung 4:301-350. (Cited by 355 | Google | Edit)

3.5e	Psychophysics [8]

3.5f	Gestalt Theory [26]

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