Transformed Up-Down Methods in Psychoacoustics

Abstract

During the past decade a number of variations in the simple up-down procedure have been used in psychoacoustic testing. A broad class of these methods is described with due emphasis on the related problems of parameter estimation and the efficient placing of observations. The advantages of up-down methods are many, including simplicity, high efficiency, robustness, small-sample reliability, and relative freedom from restrictive assumptions. Several applications of these procedures in psychoacoustics are described, including examples where conventional techniques are inapplicable.