Single‐point Versus Time‐intensity Sensory Measurements: An Informational Entropy Analysis¹

Single‐point sensory response measurement techniques such as magnitude estimation and category scaling only contain a limited amount of information. Time‐intensity (T‐I) data collection techniques provide much more information, addressing rate‐related and duration aspects as well as intensity quantification. A theoretical analysis and comparison of single‐point and T‐I responses is presented from an informational (Shannon) entropy content viewpoint. The analysis is based on a hypothetical T‐I response curve and a hypothetical series of single‐point measurements attempting to approximate the T‐I curve. Assuming a 15 s sensory event the associated T‐I response of a single parameter is shown to contain a significantly greater amount of potential information storage capacity relative to the single‐point or a small series of single‐point measurements attempting to generate temporal behavior. Theoretically, the T‐I response also displays greater quantities of a parameter called information density. Finally, it may be hypothesized that T‐I techniques can be shown to be more efficient in terms of rate of information acquisition.