Abstract
GREGORY1 and Cane and Gregory2 have put forward a theoretical equation for the brightness increment threshold considered as a statistical discrimination. For a given frequency of detection they propose that: 
where (r + Δr), r, are the mean neural pulse-rates associated with the intensities (I + ΔI), I, and V is the variance of these rates. C is a constant necessary to account for the occurrence of fewer than 50 per cent false positives. Its implication, as stated by Gregory, is that “some fixed difference between impulse rates is required before discrimination is established, this difference being independent of the intensity I”.
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References
Gregory, R. L., in Information Theory, Third London Symposium, ed. by Cherry (1956).
Gregory, R. L., and Cane, V., Nature, 176, 1272 (1955).
Thurstone, L. L., Psychol. Rev., 34, 273 (1927).
Marriott, F. H. C., Nature, 181, 1488 (1958).
Tanner, jun., W. P., and Swets, J. A., Psychol. Rev., 61, 401 (1954).
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TREISMAN, M. Theory of the Visual Threshold. Nature 189, 1031–1032 (1961). https://doi.org/10.1038/1891031b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1891031b0
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