Scales for perceived egocentric distance in a large open field: comparison of three psychophysical methods

Abstract

Scales for perceived egocentric distance produced by three psychophysical methods in four ranges of distances were compared. It was found that (a) the exponents produced by ratio and fractionation methods are in good agreement; (b) the exponents of both these methods were larger than those produced by magnitude estimation; (c) an increase in range of distance was associated with a decrease in exponent, but this diminution seems to interact with the method used; (d) for all the psychophysical methods used, there was large variability in the individual exponent; (e) the exponent was smaller than 1.0 for approximately 78% of the pooled sample, with all adult observers (N = 612) considered; and (f) an arithmetic mean exponent equal to 0.90 represents fairly all the results obtained.