Weber-Fechner law

The Weber - Fechner law attempts to describe the relationship between the physical magnitudes of stimuli and human perception of the intensity of stimuli. Ernst Heinrich Weber (1795-1878) was one of the first people to approach the study the human response to a physical stimulus in a quantitative fashion. Gustav Theodor Fechner (1801-1887) later offered an elaborate theoretical interpretation of Weber's findings, which he called simply Weber's law, though his admirers made the law's name a hyphenate.

Related Topics:
Ernst Heinrich Weber - Physical stimulus - Quantitative - Gustav Theodor Fechner

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Stevens' power law is generally considered to provide a more accurate and/or general description, although both the Weber - Fechner law and Stevens' power law entail implicit assumptions regarding the measurement of perceived intensity of stimuli. In the case of the Weber - Fechner law, the implicit assumption is that just noticeable differences are additive; i.e. that they can be added in an analogous manner to the addition of units of a physical quantity. Of relevance, L. L. Thurstone made explicit this assumption in terms of the concept of discriminal dispersion inherent within the Law of comparative judgment.

Related Topics:
Stevens' power law - Measurement - Just noticeable differences - Physical quantity - L. L. Thurstone - Law of comparative judgment

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Fechner believed that Weber had discovered the fundamental principle of mind/body interaction, a mathematical analog of the function Rene Descartes once assigned to the pineal gland.

Related Topics:
Rene Descartes - Pineal gland

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