02/09/2021 16:22 BPS Research Digest: An introduction to psychophysics

Friday, 20 April 2007

The Research Digest has

moved! An introduction to psychophysics
In the third of our ongoing series of guest features for students,
Dr. Tom Stafford of the University of Sheffield introduces
psychophysics.

How far away can you see a candle at night? Why

can't you see it at the same distance during the day?
How much do I have to turn up the volume before
something seems twice as loud?

All these questions are about measuring the relation

between physical qualities and the psychological
On 11 Aug 2016, the BPS impressions they cause. Psychophysics is the part of
Research Digest blog moved psychology which involves the systematic and precise
to a new home. Please find us investigation of these relationships.

there.
We digest at least one new
psych study every weekday.
Founded in the laboratory of German Gustav Fechner, psychophysics is one of the parents of modern
experimental psychology. It demonstrated that mathematical analysis could be applied to subjective reports,
and that principled relationships could be discovered between physical quantities and subjective
impressions.

Follow Us! Let's take a close look at a famous example: Weber's Law, named after Ernst Weber, a colleague of
Fechner's. This formula describes how changes in the subjective perception of stimulus intensity (e.g. how
Facebook heavy a weight feels) are related to the actual change in stimulus magnitude (how much something actually
weighs). You can look up the mathematics of this if you're interested, but a plain-language interpretation is
Twitter that to increase the perceived intensity of a stimulus you need to increase its physical magnitude by a
constant proportion, not a constant absolute amount.

Tumblr
Imagine: you can make an empty bag feel heavier by putting in a book, but a single book won't make a bag
RSS full of bricks feel heavier, even though in both cases you are adding the same amount of weight. Weber's
Law gives you a mathematical way to calculate how much you would need to increase or decrease the
physical weight to produce a subjective impression of a change in heaviness. It also allows you to compare
sensitivity between the senses – showing, for example that we are more sensitive to brightness than
Get our free email newsletter: loudness, because the proportional change needed to create a noticeable difference for lights is smaller
than that needed for sounds.

Sign me up!
As well as discovering many of the few laws that exist in psychology, psychophysics has generated methods
and theories which are applied across all of experimental psychology, not just in the investigation of
sensation and perception. In applying scientific measurement to subjective experience, the early
psychophysicists were demonstrating a faith in empiricism, but they were also throwing themselves upon a
dilemma - the attempt to relate the world of the measurable and objective to the subjective inner world of
sensation. That dilemma is still just as relevant and profound today in all areas of psychology, and
psychophysics is still vital as a toolkit for addressing it.

__________________________________

Read an excerpt of Fechner, G. (1860). Elements of psychophysics (HE Adler, Trans.). New York: Holt,
Rinehart and Winston.

Link to the psychophysics introduction by Webvision.

bps-research-digest.blogspot.com/2007/04/introduction-to-psychophysics.html 1/2
02/09/2021 16:22 BPS Research Digest: An introduction to psychophysics

Check out the other articles in this ongoing series, including "Why psychologists study twins", "A lyrical guide to using the web"
and "Podcasts - a clickable list". Forthcoming in the series: "Systematic reviews" and "Virtual reality and online games" - stay
tuned!

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