Uncertainty explains many aspects of visual contrast detection and discrimination.

More than 20 years ago, Tanner [Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 89, 752 (1961)] noted that observers asked to detect a signal act as though they are uncertain about the physical characteristics of the signal to be detected. The popular assumptions of probability summation and decision variable, taken together, imply this uncertainty. This paper defines and uncertainty model of visual detection that assumes that the observer is uncertain among many signals and chooses the likeliest. With only four parameters, the uncertainty model explains why d' is approximately a power function of contrast ("nonlinear transduction") and accurately predicts effects of summation, facilitation, noise, subjective criterion, and task for near-threshold contrast. Thus the uncertainty model offers a synthesis of much of our current understanding of visual contrast detection and discrimination.