Tracking methods differ from adjustment by letting subjects control only direction, not magnitude

Evidence

Method of Adjustment. In this method, the subject has control over the stimulus. For example, the subject can vary the level of a pure tone until it is just audible. In another experiment, the subject might vary the frequency of … Method of ‘!racking. In the method of tracking, the subject also controls the stimulus; however, in contrast to the method of adjustment, the subject controls only the direction in which a stimulus varies. In the measurements of absolute thresholds, for example, the subject increases and decreases the level of a pure tone in such a way that the situations “tone audible” and “tone inaudible” follow each other in sequence. If the excursions of the level are plotted as a function of frequency, this method is called Bekesy tracking. The mean value of the zigzag curves is taken as an indication of the value in question. — Professor Dr.-Ing. Hugo Fastl, Professor Dr.-Ing. Eberhard, Psychoacoustics- Facts and Models, 107

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the method of adjustment and distinguishes it from the tracking method.