Abstract: Universal Fechnerian Scaling (UFS) is a principled approach to computing “subjective” distances among objects (stimuli) from their pairwise discrimination probabilities. It is based on the concept of ‘dissimilarity function’ leading to a locally symmetrical quasimetric in the context of Dissimilarity Cumulation (DC) theory developed by Dzhafarov and Colonius. Here we show that, for finite sets of objects, the replacement of dissimilarity cumulation with a dissimilarity maximization procedure results in “subjective” distances satisfying the ultrametric inequality.

Keywords: Fechnerian scaling; dissimilarity function; quasimetric; ultrametric.

ACM Classification Keywords: G.2.3 Discrete Mathematics – Applications;

MSC: 54E05, 54E15, 54E35, 05C12

Link:

ULTRAMETRIC FECHNERIAN SCALING OF DISCRETE OBJECT SETS

Hans Colonius, Ehtibar N. Dzhafarov

http://www.foibg.com/ibs_isc/ibs-25/ibs-25-p11.pdf