The perception of offset: A problem of decision criteria

Abstract

Robinson (1974) has presented a simple form of a hypothesis which assumes that the sensory response to a stimulus persists for a period of time exceeding its physical duration. He uses this hypothesis to predict Efron's (1970) results concerning the delayed perception of offset of brief stimuli. We propose a natural extension of this hypothesis that assumes that each subject adopts a "personal" criterion in order to judge offset. This model not only provides predictions consistent with Efron's data, but can also predict data of quite dissimilar appearance, including the data of the present study. © 1975 Psychonomic Society, Inc.