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The Effects of Incomplete Knowledge of Results on Response Bias in an Auditory Detection Task

Davis, Matthew J.
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6726-0139
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1440375447

Abstract Details

2015, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Speech and Hearing Science.
The effects of response bias in signal detection tasks are often intentionally minimized in order to focus on unbiased estimates of sensitivity. While reducing bias can be useful in many laboratory tasks, such diminution does little to describe real-world detection behavior. One interesting manipulator of response bias is the concept known as Knowledge of Results (KR), or more commonly known as Feedback. Feedback allows observers to not only improve their ability to detect signals but can also give information necessary for optimizing their responses to meet any one of the many decision strategies available (such as maximizing the percentage of correct responses (Green & Swets, 1966)). What is relatively unknown, however, is how a reduction in KR for individual response types (Hits, Misses, False Alarms, and Correct Rejections) can influence response bias. The proposed terminology for this type of KR is "Incomplete Knowledge of Results (IKR)". This study examined four cases of shifts in response bias due to IKR symmetry, organization, implicitness, and amount. The question of IKR symmetry examined how conditions with a single feedback type might influence listener response bias equally or unequally. The question of IKR organization was designed to uncover any relationship between 2-feedback conditions yielding KR for "yes" responses, signal trials, and correct responses. The question of implicit IKR examined whether listeners could utilize missing feedback information to optimize their response bias. Finally, the question of IKR amount examined whether an increasing quantity of feedback elements could decrease the quantity of non-optimal responses. A group of ten human listeners were given a series of single-interval yes-no detection tasks designed to measure response bias due to the previously discussed research questions. The single-interval adjustment matrix (SIAM) procedure (Kaernbach, 1990) was used to determine unbiased detection thresholds at 75% correct for 1 kHz sinusoidal tones in a broad-band white noise masker. These thresholds were used to present a fixed-level stimulus during the IKR detection task. The resulting analyses reveal that IKR does have significant effects on response bias according to the decision strategy which maximizes proportion correct bias (Chapter 1 of Green & Swets, 1966), though these effects are manifested differently in each of the four research questions. The effects due to IKR symmetry were found to yield significant differences in 100% of subjects for an average of 67% of all possible comparisons. The effects due to IKR amount yielded significant differences between conditions for 90% of the subjects for an average of 67% of all possible comparisons. Significant effects between conditions with implicit feedback were found for an average of 67% of all possible comparisons. The slopes of the data designed to test IKR amount were significant in only 50% of subjects. An analysis of the results from the four research questions suggests that the effects due to asymmetry might influence the results of complex combinations of feedback, especially with regards to the amount of IKR.
Lawrence L. Feth, PhD (Advisor)
Eric Healy, PhD (Committee Member)
Rachael Frush Holt, PhD (Committee Member)
Frank Mobley, PhD (Committee Member)
188 p.
Audiology; Behavioral Psychology; Behavioral Sciences
Knowledge of Results; Response Bias; Signal Detection Theory

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Davis, M. J. (2015). The Effects of Incomplete Knowledge of Results on Response Bias in an Auditory Detection Task [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1440375447

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Davis, Matthew. The Effects of Incomplete Knowledge of Results on Response Bias in an Auditory Detection Task. 2015. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1440375447.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Davis, Matthew. "The Effects of Incomplete Knowledge of Results on Response Bias in an Auditory Detection Task." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1440375447

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1440375447
472
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.