This paper shows that Fechner's law of psychophysics is a special case of Stevens' power law with three parameters. Consequently, at least as good over-all fit to experimental data is always obtained, at the cost of one additional parameter, by using Stevens' power law involving an extra parameter added to the response variable.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
EkmanG.Is the power law a special case of Fechner's law?Perceptual and Motor Skills, 1964, 19, 730.
2.
FalmagneJ. C.Psychophysical measurement and theory. In BoffK. R.KaufmanL.ThomasJ. P. (Eds.), Handbook of perception and human performance. Vol. 1. Sensory processes and perception. New York: Wiley. Pp. 1.1–1.66.
3.
KvålsethT. O.Is Fechner's logarithmic law a special case of Stevens' power law?Perceptual and Motor Skills, 1981, 52, 617–618.
4.
StevensS. S.Psychophysics: Introduction to its perceptual, neural and social prospects. New York: Wiley, 1975.
