jelérzékelési

Jelérzékelés, often translated as signal detection, is a framework used to understand how people detect signals embedded in noise. It is a fundamental concept in psychology and neuroscience, with applications in fields ranging from audiology to artificial intelligence. The core idea is that detecting a stimulus is not simply a matter of whether the stimulus is present or absent, but rather a decision-making process influenced by both the strength of the stimulus and the observer's response criteria.

The signal detection theory models the process as a comparison between a sensory response and a decision threshold. When a stimulus (the signal) is presented against a background of irrelevant information (noise), the observer generates an internal response. If this response exceeds a certain threshold, the observer reports detecting the signal. This threshold is not fixed but can be adjusted by the observer based on their motivation, expectations, or the consequences of making a correct or incorrect decision.

Key outcomes in signal detection tasks include correct rejections (correctly identifying when no signal is present), misses (failing to detect a signal when it is present), false alarms (incorrectly reporting a signal when none is present), and hits (correctly identifying when a signal is present). Signal detection theory provides mathematical tools to quantify an observer's sensitivity (their ability to discriminate signal from noise) and their bias (their tendency to favor one response over another). This allows researchers to distinguish between an individual's perceptual capabilities and their response strategies.