Psychophysical laws as reflection of mental space properties

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Science
• Psychophysics
• Theoretical Physics

Background:

• Discusses psychophysics development and Teghtsoonian's hypotheses on inner psychophysics universality.
• Introduces the concept of psychological space as an individual object with unique properties.
• Reviews the two-component description of human behavior.

Purpose of the Study:

• Formulate the notion of mental space based on Lubashevsky's work.
• Describe human perception as the emergence of images in mental space.
• Explain psychophysical regularities and resolve the Fechner-Stevens dilemma.

Main Methods:

• Utilizes a two-component description of human behavior.
• Defines mental space and image formation from external stimuli.
• Develops mental operations for image comparison and scaling within cognitive limits.

Main Results:

• Demonstrates that the theory explains psychophysical regularities: regression, range effects, scalar variability (Weber's and Ekman's laws), and sequential effects.
• Proposes a solution to the Fechner-Stevens dilemma.
• Suggests Fechner's logarithmic law arises from stimulus intensity uncertainty and multi-step scaling.

Conclusions:

• The developed theory of stimulus perception provides a unified framework for understanding psychophysical phenomena.
• The proposed solution to the Fechner-Stevens dilemma reconciles logarithmic and power laws of perception.
• Highlights the role of individual mental space properties in shaping perception.