Feedback and Psychophysical Variables in Signal Detection

Abstract

144 observers, divided into eight groups of 18 each, were run in a two-alternative, temporal, forced-choice auditory-signal-detection task. At each of two signal intensities, four levels of information feedback were used. No feedback (NF); correct feedback on every trial (F100), on three-fourths (F75), or half (F50) of the trials, with incorrect feedback on remaining trials. The results were that (a) NF and F100 led to higher probability of correct responding P(C) than either F75 or F50 for both signal intensities; (b) P(C) for NF was higher under the higher intensity but lower under the lower intensity than for F100; (c) on trials immediately following trials on which observer's response and feedback agreed, detection rates were higher and false-alarm rates were lower than following disagreement trials, whereas these differences were close to zero for F50. It is argued that feedback leads the observer to change his criterion following disagreements. The effect of this variability is to depress the mean detectability index d′ of signal-detectability theory.