ABSTRACT
In this book, we analyze experiments that measure the ability to distinguish between stimuli. An important characteristic of such experiments is that observers can be more or less accurate. For example, a radiologist’s goal is to identify accurately those X-rays that display abnormalities, and participants in a recognition memory study are accurate to the degree that they can tell previously presented stimuli from novel ones. Measures of performance in these kinds of tasks are also called sensitivity measures: High sensitivity refers to good ability to discriminate, low sensitivity to poor ability. This is a natural term in detection studies-a sensitive listener hears things an insensitive one does not-but it applies as well to the radiology and memory examples.