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Webber's law, Fechner's law and Stevens' law

Weber's Law

Weber, in the early 19th century, discovered that for a person lifting weights in an experiment, the just distinguishable additional weight depended [somehow] on [what?]. In other words, if the original weight is \( I \) and the just distinguishable additional weight is \( \Delta I \), then [something] is a constant.

Fechner's Law

Fechner wished to derive a transformation that would transform the physical intensity scale to a "perceptual scale" where units on the perceputal scale corresponded to perceptual changes of the same magnitude.

Fechner started with two assumptions:

  • Weber's law was valid.
  • A just noticeable difference can be considered a [what?].

Stevens' law

Stevens showed that many relationships between just noticable differences and physical stimulus changes actually follow a [something] law. Steven's work finds its way into some fundamental aspects of color measurement.