Continuous psychophysics: past, present, future

• Published in: Trends in cognitive sciences Vol. 29; no. 5; pp. 481 - 493
• Main Authors: Burge, Johannes, Bonnen, Kathryn
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.05.2025
• Subjects: control theory; Humans; psychophysics; Psychophysics - methods; Psychophysics - trends; signal detection theory; spatial vision; temporal processing; vision; vision; temporal processing; signal detection theory; control theory; psychophysics; spatial vision
• ISSN: 1364-6613; 1879-307X; 1879-307X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2025.01.005

Continuous psychophysics is a recently developed experimental paradigm that enables rapid collection of high-quality psychophysical data.Estimates of sensory-perceptual variables derived from continuous psychophysics data are often similar to (i.e., are tightly correlated with or are approximately equal to) those from traditional forced-choice methods.Data resulting from continuous psychophysics provide rich temporal information about the timecourse of sensory-perceptual processing and/or motor response.The strengths of continuous psychophysics are often weaknesses of traditional psychophysics, and vice versa. The two methods nicely complement each other.Continuous psychophysics requires few instructions and/or little to no training. It thus facilitates data collection from non-traditional (e.g., infants, patients) or animal participant populations. Continuous target-tracking psychophysics is an innovative experimental paradigm that has emerged as a powerful tool for studying perception, cognition, and visually guided behavior. This review outlines how continuous psychophysics complements traditional forced-choice methods by facilitating rapid data collection, providing insights into the real-time dynamics of perception and action, and enabling studies with special subject populations such as infants and patients. With its efficiency, conceptual simplicity, and ability to reveal temporal signatures of processing and performance, continuous psychophysics is poised to drive important advances across perception and cognitive science. Continuous target-tracking psychophysics is an innovative experimental paradigm that has emerged as a powerful tool for studying perception, cognition, and visually guided behavior. This review outlines how continuous psychophysics complements traditional forced-choice methods by facilitating rapid data collection, providing insights into the real-time dynamics of perception and action, and enabling studies with special subject populations such as infants and patients. With its efficiency, conceptual simplicity, and ability to reveal temporal signatures of processing and performance, continuous psychophysics is poised to drive important advances across perception and cognitive science.