| Reviewed: |
Jul 06, 2002 by Psychology |
| Overview: |
This site has the potential to help students understand a fairly difficult
aspect of visual perception - signal detection. There is a brief but useful
description of the theory, followed by an interesting experiment in which the
learner becomes a subject and generates data on the detection of weak and strong
signals. Students who complete the six sets of 20 trials are presented with a
table of results which shows their ability to detect such signals. The table of
results can be printed, and there is an opportunity to compare results. There
is the potential to investigate the influence of predictor variables such as
gender, age, etc. on signal detection sensitivity.
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| Learning Goals: |
The goal of this website is to provide the psychology student with a
description of signal detection theory and lead him/her through an experiment in
which personal data is collected and summarized. This activity leads to a
better understanding of how humans organize and interpret certain kinds of
visual information.
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| Target Student Population: |
Undergraduate Psychology students.
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| Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills: |
College-level reading ability required.
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| Type of Material: |
A text-based description and a java applet experiment.
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| Recommended Uses: |
This activity provides an interesting and compelling introduction to a fairly
complex theory of visual perception. It is recommended as an ancillary activity
to a more thorough discussion.
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| Technical Requirements: |
Monitor and browser settings may need to be adjusted for proper viewing. There
are full instructions available.
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