Modeling the Observer in Target Acquisition

Download or read book Modeling the Observer in Target Acquisition written by and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Night Vision Standard Model defines P00 as the fraction of a large sample of observers, drawn from the standard ensemble, that will, given unlimited time, eventually detect a given target. Even given that this definition is understood, what is the meaning of P to infinity? The question has been asked frequently since the introduction of the Standard Model. At first glance, the question seems at best irrelevant; at worst, without content. After all, given the value of P to infinity, we can by definition predict (up to statistical uncertainties) how many observers out of a given sample will eventually succeed in a specific target acquisition task. Nevertheless, different interpretations are possible. A seminal work on the subject discussed several of them at length and proposed possible implications. Here are two of these interpretations: All observers are equivalent in a statistical sense, but their responses to a given target are stochastic. Thus, if P to infinity is 50 percent, then any given observer has a 50-percent chance of detecting it. This is independent of that observer's chance of detecting any other P to infinity = 50 percent target. All observers are strictly ordered in target acquisition competence. There is no stochastic element at all; the detection 'probability' is really just the fraction of the observer ensemble that is sufficiently competent to accomplish the detection of the given target. In this case, every P to infinity = 50 percent target is always detected by above-average observers and never detected by below-average ones.