MENTAL MODEL · M2950

Signal Detection Theory, SDT

BehaviorHigh supportPsychology

Included

Version 1.0.0 · Updated 2026-07-30

CORE DEFINITION

When making decisions in an uncertain environment full of noise, it involves not only 'sensitivity' but also 'bias'. The outcomes are divided into four types: Hit, Miss, False Alarm, and Correct Rejection. You must weigh the trade-off between 'miss' (missing opportunities/letting bad guys go) and 'false alarm' (misunderstanding/wronging good people). -

SCAFFOLDING EFFECT

psychology

Reduce cognitive load

Calibration of decision threshold. - For example, if a doctor is too strict in reading scans, they may miss cancer (Miss, with high cost).

anchor

Anchor fast decisions

SDT decomposes decision-making into two independent dimensions: sensitivity (d′, the ability to distinguish real signals from noise) and criterion (β/criterion, the tendency of the subject to say 'yes'). Under the same sensitivity, raising the criterion leads to more misses and fewer false alarms; lowering the criterion does the opposite. Decision-making essentially involves weighing the costs of two types of errors.

MINIMUM ACTION

In progress 0/4

Practice this model in one real situation:

Define 'signal present/absent' and the four outcomes (hit, miss, false alarm, correct rejection)
Assess whether the current criterion is too strict or too lenient
Adjust the threshold based on the costs of the two error types (e.g., lower the criterion if the cost of missing is high)
Train sensitivity and criterion calibration separately.

Check to track your progress (stored locally)

Learning progress0%

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Source support: Explicit

link
zh.wikipedia.orghttps://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%BF%A1%E5%8F%B7%E6%A3%80%E6%B5%8B%E7%90%86%E8%AE%BAZH · Explicit
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