Detection and identification of spatial offset: double-judgment psychophysics revisited

Abstract

In a bull's-eye acuity task, we asked observers to identify in which direction, to the left or the right, a spot had been displaced from the center of a circle and-after that, in the same trial-to detect which of the two presented circles contained the displaced spot. Replicating our previous findings (Allik, Dzhafarov, & Rauk, 1982), the spatial offset direction identification probability was higher than the probability with which the correct observation interval could be detected. All data were explained by a Thurstonian model, according to which the spatial positions of both spots are projected onto an internal axis of representation as two random numbers, x and y, drawn from a random distribution with a fixed standard deviation ς (final sigma). The observed identification and detection probabilities were accurately reproduced, provided that the observer tested two different inequalities: x + y > 0 for the identification, and x (2) - y (2) > 0 for the detection. In order to eliminate small discrepancies between the predicted and the observed data, we proposed that the positional error increases with increasing distance from the center of the annulus. It was concluded that, to explain the superiority of the identification over the detection effect, there is no need to propose separate axes of representation for mono- and bipolar information, as is usually postulated in double-judgment psychophysics.