Re: Confidence ratings in identification

[Daniel Oberfeld <oberfeld@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Bruno,

I'm sure you can find the answers to your questions in

Macmillan, N.A., & Creelman, C. D. (2005). Detection Theory. A User's 
Guide. 2nd edition. Mawah: Erlbaum.

Could you give some more details about the stimuli you want to use, then 
it will be easier to point out studies related to your questions.

Just a few general notes:

I'd suggest considering the area under the ROC curve as a measure of 
sensitivity because it relies on fewer assumptions than d' (Macmillan & 
Creelman discuss this in detail). The area under the ROC curve is widely 
used in medical decision making (e.g., a radiologist looks at mammograms 
and classifies them as normal, benign, probably benign, suspicious, or 
malignant), so it might be interesting to consider this body of 
literature. Specifically, models have been formulated which take into 
account the data from several observers (for a recent review see 
Obuchovski, N. A. (2007). New methodological tools for multiple-reader 
ROC studies. Radiology, 243, 10-12). Alternatively, Macmillan and 
Creelman discuss the pooling of observations.

Kind regards,

Daniel

--
Dr. Daniel Oberfeld-Twistel
Johannes Gutenberg - Universitaet Mainz
Department of Psychology
Experimental Psychology

Staudingerweg 9
55128 Mainz
Germany

Phone ++49 (0) 6131 39 22423
Fax   ++49 (0) 6131 39 22480
http://www.staff.uni-mainz.de/oberfeld/