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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 17, 2026

Using the Race Model Inequality to Quantify Behavioral Multisensory Integration Effects

Using the Race Model Inequality to Quantify Behavioral Multisensory Integration Effects

Published on: May 10, 2019

On the ability to directly evaluate sensory ratios.

Sergio Cesare Masin¹

¹Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Italy. scm@unipd.it

Attention, Perception & Psychophysics

|October 18, 2012

Summary

Participants cannot directly evaluate sensory ratios for length, brightness, or brightness difference. Instead, they use mental counting or difference evaluation, suggesting difference judgments are a general human capability.

Area of Science:

Psychology
Sensory Perception
Cognitive Science

Background:

Direct evaluation of sensory ratios is a key aspect of psychophysical research.
Previous studies have yielded mixed results regarding humans' ability to directly assess sensory ratios.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate whether individuals can directly evaluate sensory ratios across different perceptual continua.
To determine the cognitive strategies employed when evaluating sensory magnitudes.

Main Methods:

Functional measurement analysis was used to model participants' judgments.
Chronometric analysis of response times was employed to infer cognitive processes.
Participants were asked to evaluate ratios of length, brightness, and brightness difference.

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Main Results:

Participants did not directly evaluate ratios for length, brightness, or brightness difference.
Mental counting was identified as the strategy for length evaluation.
Difference evaluation was the strategy for brightness and brightness difference evaluation.

Conclusions:

Humans do not appear to directly evaluate sensory ratios for extensive and intensive continua.
The ability to evaluate differences seems to be a general human cognitive capability.
Findings challenge prior assumptions about ratio evaluation and Torgerson's conjecture.