Signal Detection Theory and Psychophysics¶
Green, D. M., & Swets, J. A. (1966). Signal Detection Theory and Psychophysics. Wiley.
Cited by¶
15 citations across 15 artifacts.
Each citation links to the sentence it supports in the citing article.
Primes¶
- Alertness
- The standing capacity is the observer's prepared state to notice that target class, operationalised as detection sensitivity (d′ in signal-detection terms) held separately from the deployed attention the observer allocates moment to moment.
This sourceEstablishes signal-detection theory and the sensitivity index d′, used to hold detection sensitivity separate from response allocation.
- The standing capacity is the observer's prepared state to notice that target class, operationalised as detection sensitivity (d′ in signal-detection terms) held separately from the deployed attention the observer allocates moment to moment.
- Expectation Violation
- An event on a dimension the model never addressed is irrelevant rather than contrary. A registration threshold. Below some tolerance the mismatch is assimilated as noise, rounding, or acceptable variance and nothing downstream changes; it is the threshold, not the raw size of the discrepancy, that decides whether a violation exists at all.
This sourceSeparates the observer's decision criterion from sensitivity, establishing that whether a discrepancy is registered depends on a threshold held independently of the magnitude of the discrepancy.
- An event on a dimension the model never addressed is irrelevant rather than contrary. A registration threshold. Below some tolerance the mismatch is assimilated as noise, rounding, or acceptable variance and nothing downstream changes; it is the threshold, not the raw size of the discrepancy, that decides whether a violation exists at all.
- Reality Monitoring
- Reality monitoring connects to signal-detection theory: source discrimination is a classification problem with a measurable sensitivity and a movable criterion, so biasing the criterion toward "external" reduces false memories at the cost of more rejections of real ones, and conversely.
This sourceFoundational signal-detection theory: discriminability (d') and movable criterion (c) as orthogonal levers tracing the ROC, framing source attribution as detection.
- Reality monitoring connects to signal-detection theory: source discrimination is a classification problem with a measurable sensitivity and a movable criterion, so biasing the criterion toward "external" reduces false memories at the cost of more rejections of real ones, and conversely.
- Selectivity Window
- Signal-detection theory's ROC curve is a selectivity-window apparatus over a decision threshold, and the intervention "shift the operating point" ports directly to "shift the classification threshold" in machine learning.
This sourceEstablishes the ROC curve and decision threshold as a selectivity-window apparatus over an operating point, with 'shift the operating point' as the core intervention.
- Signal-detection theory's ROC curve is a selectivity-window apparatus over a decision threshold, and the intervention "shift the operating point" ports directly to "shift the classification threshold" in machine learning.
- Signal Detection Theory
- It shifts the trade among hits, misses, false alarms, and correct rejections, moving the operating point along a receiver-operating-characteristic (ROC) curve whose shape is fixed by sensitivity.
This sourceThe foundational textbook establishing the sensitivity/criterion factorization, d′, the ROC curve, and the likelihood-ratio criterion.
- It shifts the trade among hits, misses, false alarms, and correct rejections, moving the operating point along a receiver-operating-characteristic (ROC) curve whose shape is fixed by sensitivity.
- Signal Inflation
- The transfer is supported by formal work — signal-detection theory supplies the underlying mathematics, and signal inflation is the dynamic, sender-driven failure mode of a detection system whose operating point has drifted to maximum recall.
This sourceSupplies the underlying detection mathematics — ROC operating point, posterior precision, and the cost-ratio decision rule — of which signal inflation is the dynamic, recall-maximizing failure mode.
- The transfer is supported by formal work — signal-detection theory supplies the underlying mathematics, and signal inflation is the dynamic, sender-driven failure mode of a detection system whose operating point has drifted to maximum recall.
- Threshold
- T1: Threshold Existence vs Sharpness. Some phenomena that look like thresholds are actually gradual transitions with misleadingly threshold-like appearance at the observation scale; others are genuine sharp thresholds obscured by measurement noise or population variability—the diagnostic challenge Green and Swets (1966) formalized in their signal-detection-theory account, where the apparent threshold is jointly determined by sensitivity (d′) and an observer's adjustable criterion rather than by any single sharp critical value.
This sourceFoundational signal-detection-theory monograph: distinguishes sensitivity (d′) from observer criterion, showing that an apparent psychophysical "threshold" is jointly determined by underlying discriminability and an adjustable decision rule rather than by any single sharp critical value.
- T1: Threshold Existence vs Sharpness. Some phenomena that look like thresholds are actually gradual transitions with misleadingly threshold-like appearance at the observation scale; others are genuine sharp thresholds obscured by measurement noise or population variability—the diagnostic challenge Green and Swets (1966) formalized in their signal-detection-theory account, where the apparent threshold is jointly determined by sensitivity (d′) and an observer's adjustable criterion rather than by any single sharp critical value.
Domain-specific¶
- Receiver Operating Characteristic
- Radar and sonar engineering — its birthplace: characterizing a receiver's ability to separate targets from clutter across threshold settings, the WWII signal-detection problem that named the curve. Medical diagnostics and biomarkers — characterizing how well a test, imaging modality, or biomarker separates disease from health across every possible cutoff, with AUC the standard summary of diagnostic discriminability. Psychophysics and perception research — signal detection theory's core tool, where the two coordinates are named d′ (discriminability) and β (criterion) in detection experiments.
This sourceThe signal-detection apparatus for psychophysical detection experiments, modelling energy and increment detection and the shape of the ROC curve under a movable criterion.
Supported in partVerified against the work's full text
“attention, [perception], association, and choice.”
- Radar and sonar engineering — its birthplace: characterizing a receiver's ability to separate targets from clutter across threshold settings, the WWII signal-detection problem that named the curve. Medical diagnostics and biomarkers — characterizing how well a test, imaging modality, or biomarker separates disease from health across every possible cutoff, with AUC the standard summary of diagnostic discriminability. Psychophysics and perception research — signal detection theory's core tool, where the two coordinates are named d′ (discriminability) and β (criterion) in detection experiments.
Mechanisms¶
- Activation Outcome Calibration
- After a month, the numbers are ugly at both ends — analysts are activated on a flood of benign alerts (over-activation, and the alert fatigue that comes with it), yet a real intrusion sat unactioned for hours because it scored just under the threshold.
This sourceExplains that signal-detection performance depends on both sensitivity and response criterion, so threshold shifts can change apparent outcomes without changing underlying discrimination.
- After a month, the numbers are ugly at both ends — analysts are activated on a flood of benign alerts (over-activation, and the alert fatigue that comes with it), yet a real intrusion sat unactioned for hours because it scored just under the threshold.
- Environmental Scan Checklist
- The discrimination cues are what separate it from a mere to-do list — they carry, in miniature, a signal-detection sense of what distinguishes signal from noise
This sourceFrames detection as discriminating signal-plus-noise from noise rather than merely noticing activity.
- The discrimination cues are what separate it from a mere to-do list — they carry, in miniature, a signal-detection sense of what distinguishes signal from noise
- False-Alarm Recalibration
- Estimate the operating point. From the log, measure the current false-positive and false-negative rates — where the check actually sits on the trade-off between crying wolf and missing.
This sourceModels false positives and false negatives as outcomes on a sensitivity and response-criterion trade-off.
- Estimate the operating point. From the log, measure the current false-positive and false-negative rates — where the check actually sits on the trade-off between crying wolf and missing.
- False-Window Audit
- It is the timing analogue of a false positive / false negative trade-off analysis
This sourceSignal-detection theory separates false positives from false negatives and makes their trade-off explicit as a decision criterion or threshold is moved.
- It is the timing analogue of a false positive / false negative trade-off analysis
- Nested Early-Warning System
- Search Sensitivity Matrix
- Each cell is really a hit-rate under noise — the discipline of signal detection theory
This sourceGrounds noisy-detection performance in signal-detection theory's distinction among hits, misses, false alarms, and correct rejections.
- Each cell is really a hit-rate under noise — the discipline of signal detection theory
- Signal-to-Noise Action Gate
- It also embeds a cost trade-off that is easy to leave implicit
This sourceShows that signal-detection decision criteria depend on the relative costs assigned to misses and false alarms.
- It also embeds a cost trade-off that is easy to leave implicit
Verification¶
Does it exist? Not checked yet. This entry carries no identifier to resolve. It was extracted from the citation as written in the article, normalized, and deduplicated against the rest of the registry.
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Links previously used in the corpus¶
Before the registry existed this work was also linked 6 other ways.
- https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1967-02286-000 ×3
- https://search.worldcat.org/title/Signal-detection-theory-and-psychophysics/oclc/890266 ×3
- https://search.worldcat.org/title/890266 ×2
- https://books.google.com/books/about/Signal_detection_theory_and_psychophysic.html?id=fHR9AAAAMAAJ ×1
- https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1967-04578-000 ×1
- https://search.worldcat.org/title/351076 ×1
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