Monotonicity, convexity, and other qualitative psychophysical laws (Q1821059)

General methods are described for directly testing qualitative psychophysical laws, such as monotonicity and convexity. These methods consist of estimating lower and higher orders of derivatives and procedures for verifying qualitative laws involving these derivatives. The quantitative power law hypothesis is compared for goodness of fit with the qualitative hypothesis that the psychophysical function is monotone and convex, in application to bisection brightness data. Other topics include discussion of a possible topological formulation of the distinction between qualitative and quantitative laws; the search for psychophysical invariants; and the failure of qualitative laws such as convexity to conform to Luce's invariance-theoretic principles of theory construction.