Chen Y, Daly HR, Pitt MA, Van Zandt T. Assessing the distortions introduced when calculating d': A simulation approach.
Behav Res Methods 2024:10.3758/s13428-024-02447-8. [PMID:
38961038 DOI:
10.3758/s13428-024-02447-8]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 05/22/2024] [Indexed: 07/05/2024]
Abstract
The discriminability measure d ' is widely used in psychology to estimate sensitivity independently of response bias. The conventional approach to estimate d ' involves a transformation from the hit rate and the false-alarm rate. When performance is perfect, correction methods must be applied to calculate d ' , but these corrections distort the estimate. In three simulation studies, we show that distortion in d ' estimation can arise from other properties of the experimental design (number of trials, sample size, sample variance, task difficulty) that, when combined with application of the correction method, make d ' distortion in any specific experiment design complex and can mislead statistical inference in the worst cases (Type I and Type II errors). To address this problem, we propose that researchers simulate d ' estimation to explore the impact of design choices, given anticipated or observed data. An R Shiny application is introduced that estimates d ' distortion, providing researchers the means to identify distortion and take steps to minimize its impact.
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