The psychophysics of mental test difficulty

Abstract

By the use of the Seashore tests of Pitch Discrimination, Intensity Discrimination, Time Discrimination, and the test of Tonal Memory, it is shown that the easiness of an item, as determined by absolute scaling methods, is proportional to the logarithm of the magnitude of the stimulus. It is proposed that this is a case of Fechner's psychophysical law and that the unit of absolute scaling as applied to test items may become a satisfactory unit of allS-scales in the more traditional psychophysical problem.