Yu Kenny, Lin Tzu-Yao, Zaman Jonas, Tuerlinckx Francis, Vanhasbroeck Niels
KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands.
Behav Res Methods. 2025 Mar 28;57(5):127. doi: 10.3758/s13428-025-02650-1.
Measuring perceptual uncertainty is important for understanding how perception influences post-perception behavior, while it remains unknown whether measured perceptual responses in behavioral tasks reflect true perceptual uncertainty or methodological artifacts. This study compared two size perception approaches: a visual analog scale (VAS) estimation task and a reproduction task. We recruited 180 participants who completed both tasks by estimating circle diameters on a VAS and adjusting circle sizes to match specified diameters. Our analysis used two Bayesian multilevel models - a variance decomposition model computing intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) for overall response consistency, and a generative psychophysical model to characterize perceptual response patterns. Results revealed high overall response consistency across tasks, but detailed variance component analysis uncovered systematic method differences. Participant, stimulus, and interaction variances were consistently higher in the estimation task, indicating greater individual differences and more idiosyncratic responses. Psychophysical analyses further showed that the estimation task produced a steeper perceptual slope and a lower intercept compared to reproduction. Notably, while overall task-level perceptual uncertainty was nearly identical, the scaling of uncertainty with stimulus size was markedly stronger in estimation. These findings suggest that much of the observed variability reflects genuine perceptual uncertainty rather than measurement error, though distinct cognitive demands shape its expression. Our results confirm that both VAS and reproduction tasks yield consistent measures of perceptual variability, underscoring their value in behavioral research and the need for future studies to disentangle intrinsic perceptual processes from task-specific noise.
测量感知不确定性对于理解感知如何影响感知后行为很重要，然而行为任务中测量的感知反应是否反映了真正的感知不确定性或方法学假象仍不清楚。本研究比较了两种大小感知方法：视觉模拟量表（VAS）估计任务和再现任务。我们招募了180名参与者，他们通过在VAS上估计圆的直径并调整圆的大小以匹配指定直径来完成这两项任务。我们的分析使用了两个贝叶斯多层次模型——一个方差分解模型，用于计算类内相关系数（ICC）以评估总体反应一致性，以及一个生成性心理物理学模型来表征感知反应模式。结果显示，各项任务的总体反应一致性较高，但详细的方差成分分析发现了系统的方法差异。在估计任务中，参与者、刺激和交互作用的方差始终较高，表明个体差异更大，反应更具特异性。心理物理学分析进一步表明，与再现任务相比，估计任务产生的感知斜率更陡，截距更低。值得注意的是，虽然总体任务水平的感知不确定性几乎相同，但估计任务中不确定性随刺激大小的缩放明显更强。这些发现表明观察到的许多变异性反映了真正的感知不确定性而非测量误差，尽管不同的认知需求塑造了其表现形式。我们的结果证实，VAS和再现任务都能产生一致的感知变异性测量结果，强调了它们在行为研究中的价值，以及未来研究区分内在感知过程与特定任务噪声的必要性。
