An area theorem for the same-different experiment.
If observers in a same-different experiment base their decisions on the absolute difference between observations on a trial, the area under the receiver operating characteristic equals the maximum proportion of correct decisions that an unbiased independent-observations observer could attain. Even though the differencing strategy is suboptimal, the area measure yields an index of optimal performance.
Irwin
R J
RJ
Department of Psychology, University of Auckland, New Zealand. j.irwin@auckland.ac.nz
Hautus
M J
MJ
Butcher
J C
JC
D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment / Q000502:physiology*; D011601:Psychophysics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012372:ROC Curve; D017603:Signal Detection, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis