Constant-stims method maps full psychophysical functions rather than single thresholds

Evidence

The method of constant stimuli is used to quantify thresholds. To this end, the experimenter chooses a relatively large number of sound event attribute values around the assumed value of the absolute or difference threshold. The listening test is conducted for each attribute value with a detection or discrimination task, or preferably with a multiple-interval forced-choice task to avoid bias. The task must be repeated a considerable number of times, and a psychophysical function such as that shown in Figure 8.2 is obtained. The actual value for the threshold can then be selected to be, for example, the value of the abscissa where the function has the value 50%. — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 913

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains the method of constant stimuli, the gold-standard threshold technique.