ABSTRACT
In the scaling of sensory or social events using direct judgments of single stimuli, subjects usually are instructed to assign numbers or categories to reflect the magnitude of some attribute of the stimulus. For instance, in magnitude estimation of loudness, pure tones are presented one at a time, and subjects are requested to assign numbers to the tones such that the numbers are proportional to the loudnesses of the tones. These instructions assume that subjects can base their judgments on loudness alone—ignoring any variations that may occur in the pitch of the tones. To focus attention on the attribute of loudness, the experimenter usually holds the frequency of the tone constant while varying only the intensity. Because pitch variations with intensity are relatively small compared to the loudness variations, it is reasonable to assume that the subjects' judgments reflect only loudness variations in the tones. Hence, with respect to loudness, the question of the dimensionality of the judgment is seldom if ever raised 1
