Abstract
The concept of internal noise occupies a central role in psychophysics. In experiments in which the external physical stimuli contain random noise, the subject's response will vary in part due to the noisiness of the stimulus and in part due to his own internal noise. Several investigators have attempted to measure the relative magnitudes of internal and external noise in various experimental situations. However, there have been no rigorous definitions made for internal and external noise. Thus, when interpreting results of these experiments, one must be careful in ascertaining what is measured. We present mathematical definition of internal and external variability, and discuss their advantages and limitations. Applying these definitions to experimental noise-density discrimination data [D. H. Raab and J. J. Goldberg, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 57, 437–447 (1975)], we estimate relative internal and external variance components for that task. Our estimates differ from those calculated by Raab and Goldberg, who assumed that auditory processing is characterized by an energy detector and an independent internal noise source. [Work supported by NIH.]
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