Abstract
A behavioral model for performance on signal-detection tasks is presented. It is based on a relation between response and reinforcement ratios which has been derived from both animal and human research on the distribution of behavior between concurrently available schedules of reinforcement. This model establishes the ratio of obtained reinforcements for the choice responses, and not the probability of stimulus presentation, as the effective biaser in signal-detection research. Furthermore, experimental procedures which do not control the obtained reinforcement ratio are shown to give rise to unstable bias contours. Isobias contours, on the other hand, arise only from controlled reinforcement-ratio procedures.
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Nevin, J. A., Jenkins, P., Whittaker, S., & Yarensky, P.Signal detection, differential reinforcement and matching. Paper presented at the meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Washington, D.C., November 1977.
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The research reported here was supported entirely by the New Zealand University Grants Committee, to which organization we continue to be most grateful.
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Mccarthy, D., Davison, M. Towards a behavioral theory of bias in signal detection. Perception & Psychophysics 29, 371–382 (1981). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03207347
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03207347