Definition
Many definitions of this term have been offered.
Geisler (2003) (slightly reworded): The central concept in ideal observer analysis is the ideal observer, a theoretical device that performs a given task in an optimal fashion given the available information and some specified constraints. This is not to say that ideal observers perform without error, but rather that they perform at the physical limit of what is possible in the situation. The fundamental role of uncertainty and noise implies that ideal observers must be defined in probabilistic (statistical) terms. Ideal observer analysis involves determining the performance of the ideal observer in a given task and then comparing its performance to that of a real perceptual system, which (depending on the application) might be the system as a whole, a subsystem, or an elementary component of the system (e.g. a neuron).
Read more about this topic: Ideal Observer Analysis
Famous quotes containing the word definition:
“It’s a rare parent who can see his or her child clearly and objectively. At a school board meeting I attended . . . the only definition of a gifted child on which everyone in the audience could agree was “mine.””
—Jane Adams (20th century)
“Mothers often are too easily intimidated by their children’s negative reactions...When the child cries or is unhappy, the mother reads this as meaning that she is a failure. This is why it is so important for a mother to know...that the process of growing up involves by definition things that her child is not going to like. Her job is not to create a bed of roses, but to help him learn how to pick his way through the thorns.”
—Elaine Heffner (20th century)
“Although there is no universal agreement as to a definition of life, its biological manifestations are generally considered to be organization, metabolism, growth, irritability, adaptation, and reproduction.”
—The Columbia Encyclopedia, Fifth Edition, the first sentence of the article on “life” (based on wording in the First Edition, 1935)