Using psychophysical tools to quantify body image perception: a tutorial

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article presents a tutorial about two protocols that can be used to measure an individual's perception of body image, direct and indirect , and which follow S.S. ( Stevens 1951) methods. Two psychophysical task approaches illustrate the ability of individuals to quantify body image distortions. We selected psychophysical tasks that indirectly assess a participant's behavioral component of body image (i.e., satisfaction tendencies about body image); and second, the cognitive component of body image (i.e., individuals' perceptual accuracy in magnitude estimation tasks, which depend on a familiarity with interval scales and the use of numbers and ratios to represent physical dimensions of stimuli). We determined individuals' perceptual sensitivity (i.e., his or her perceptual style ) to manipulations of the body's size by using Stevens' power function ( Stevens, 1951).

Keywords

• psicofísica
• imagen corporal
• estimación de magnitud
• función de potencia