Presenting the proceedings of a conference held at Syracuse University in honor of S.S. Stevens, a pioneer in the scaling of sensory magnitudes and the originator of the method of magnitude estimation, this volume brings together the work of 20 authorities on the procedures of ratio scaling. These experts--psychophysicists, physiologists, and theoreticians--offer their views on whether or not psychological magnitudes can be measured and whether the judgments of psychological magnitudes constitute the basis for the construction of a ratio scale. Also discussed is the question of whether any single method could stand out as a potential standard technique for measuring psychological magnitudes.

Information-Processing Channels in the Tactile Sensory System addresses the fundamental question of whether sensory channels, similar to those known to operate in vision and audition, also operate in the sense of touch. Based on the results of psychophysical and neurophysiological experimentation the authors make a powerful case that channels operate in the processing of mechanical stimulation of the highly sensitive glabrous skin of the hand. According to the multichannel model presented in this monograph, each channel, with its specific type of mechanoreceptor and afferent nerve fiber, responds optiimally to particular aspects of the tactile stimulus. It is further proposed that the tactile perception of objects results from the combined activity of the individual tactile channels. This work is important because it provides researchers and students in the field of sensory neuroscience with a comprehensive model that enhances our understanding of tactile perception.

Presenting the proceedings of a conference held at Syracuse University in honor of S.S. Stevens, a pioneer in the scaling of sensory magnitudes and the originator of the method of magnitude estimation, this volume brings together the work of 20 authorities on the procedures of ratio scaling. These experts--psychophysicists, physiologists, and theoreticians--offer their views on whether or not psychological magnitudes can be measured and whether the judgments of psychological magnitudes constitute the basis for the construction of a ratio scale. Also discussed is the question of whether any single method could stand out as a potential standard technique for measuring psychological magnitudes.

This third edition of a classic text which was first published in 1976 is the only comprehensive, up-to-date presentation of psychophysics currently available. It has been used by undergraduate and graduate students, and scholars throughout the world and is consistently thought of as the best single source for learning the basic principles of psychophysics. The coverage of the field is comprehensive, including topics ranging from the classical methods of threshold measurement, to the modern methods of detection theory, to psychophysical scaling of sensation magnitude. The approach is one in which methods, theories, and applications are described for each experimental procedure. New features found in this third edition include: * methodological and theoretical contributions made in the field during this time period, * descriptions of adaptive procedures for measuring thresholds, context effects in scaling, theory of quantal fluctuations, multidimensional scaling, nonmetric scaling of sensory differences, and the relationship between the size of the DL and the slope of the sensation magnitude function, * new methods for measuring the observer's sensitivity of criterion and an expanded discussion of category scaling including the range frequency model and verbally labeled categories, and * methods used to control the observer's nonlinear use of numbers in magnitude estimation such as line-length scaling, magnitude matching, master scaling, and category-ratio scaling.

This third edition of a classic text which was first published in 1976 is the only comprehensive, up-to-date presentation of psychophysics currently available. It has been used by undergraduate and graduate students, and scholars throughout the world and is consistently thought of as the best single source for learning the basic principles of psychophysics. The coverage of the field is comprehensive, including topics ranging from the classical methods of threshold measurement, to the modern methods of detection theory, to psychophysical scaling of sensation magnitude. The approach is one in which methods, theories, and applications are described for each experimental procedure.
New features found in this third edition include:
* methodological and theoretical contributions made in the field during this time period,
* descriptions of adaptive procedures for measuring thresholds, context effects in scaling, theory of quantal fluctuations, multidimensional scaling, nonmetric scaling of sensory differences, and the relationship between the size of the DL and the slope of the sensation magnitude function,
* new methods for measuring the observer's sensitivity of criterion and an expanded discussion of category scaling including the range frequency model and verbally labeled categories, and
* methods used to control the observer's nonlinear use of numbers in magnitude estimation such as line-length scaling, magnitude matching, master scaling, and category-ratio scaling.

Information-Processing Channels in the Tactile Sensory System addresses the fundamental question of whether sensory channels, similar to those known to operate in vision and audition, also operate in the sense of touch. Based on the results of psychophysical and neurophysiological experimentation the authors make a powerful case that channels operate in the processing of mechanical stimulation of the highly sensitive glabrous skin of the hand. According to the multichannel model presented in this monograph, each channel, with its specific type of mechanoreceptor and afferent nerve fiber, responds optiimally to particular aspects of the tactile stimulus. It is further proposed that the tactile perception of objects results from the combined activity of the individual tactile channels. This work is important because it provides researchers and students in the field of sensory neuroscience with a comprehensive model that enhances our understanding of tactile perception.