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Proclaims that signal detection theory seems to provide a framework for a realistic description of the behavior of the human observer in a variety of perceptual tasks. The particular feature of the theory that was of greatest interest to the authors was the promise of solving an old problem in the field of psychophysics. This is the problem of controlling or specifying the criterion that the observer uses in making a perceptual judgment. This paper begins with a brief review of the theory of statistical decision and then presents a description of the elements of the theory of signal detection appropriate to human observers. Following this, the results of some experimental tests of the applicability of the theory to the detection of visual signals are described. The paper also contains a description of the theory, an account of a previously reported experiment, and the results of four other experiments. The authors believe that the article brings together all of the data collected to date in vision experiments that bear directly on the value of the theory.

Because studies employing d' and r• are based on the theory of signal detectability, the theory is reviewed in sufficient detail for the purposes of definition. The efficiency, r•, is defined as the ratio of the energy required by an ideal receiver to the energy required by a receiver under study when the performance of the two is the same. The measure d' is that value of (2E/No)« necessary for the ideal receiver to match the performance of the receiver under study, where E is the energy of the signal, and No is the noise power per unit band width. The measure is extended to include the recognizability of two signals. Every set of signals is described by a Euclidean space in which distances are the square roots of the energy of the difference signal, (E•)«. The unit of measure is the square root of one-half of the noise power per unit band width (N0/2)«.

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