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Updated: Aug 9, 2026

Measurement of Vibration Detection Threshold and Tactile Spatial Acuity in Human Subjects
Published on: September 1, 2016
Noise reveals visual mechanisms of detection and discrimination
1Department of Optometry and Visual Science, City University, London EC1V 0HB, UK. J.A.Solomon@city.ac.uk
Abstract:
When performance is limited by stochastically defined masks, (psychophysical) reverse correlation has proven to be an especially efficient tool for estimating the templates used by detection and discrimination mechanisms. Here I describe a maximum-likelihood approach to quantifying the significance of differences between estimates of template. Four methodologically related experiments illustrate the versatility of reverse correlation. Experiment 1 shows significant differences between the templates used by different observers when detecting a bright Gaussian blob. The results of Experiment 2 are consistent with observers not using information about the phase of a parafoveal wavelet when detecting it. Experiments 3 and 4 reveal not only the templates used by detection mechanisms but also aspects of their response functions. Both results are consistent with a sensory threshold. Experiment 3 shows that 2-alternative forced-choice detection errors are caused when the target's effective contrast is reduced, not when the mask looks more like the expected target+mask than the actual target+mask. Experiment 4 suggests that observers use optimally tuned detection templates for orientation discrimination.
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