On the ability to directly evaluate sensory ratios

Abstract

The study explored whether participants could directly evaluate sensory ratios. The results indicate that they did not exhibit this ability for the extensive continuum of length and the intensive continua of brightness and brightness difference. Functional measurement analysis, combined with a chronometric analysis of responses, indicated that participants used mental counting for length and used difference evaluation for brightness and brightness difference. The finding that participants evaluated brightness differences under instructions to evaluate brightness ratios suggests that difference judgments may be a general human capability. It resolves questions raised by prior tests of Torgerson's conjecture and by prior consistency tests of ratio evaluation.