<p>Technically it can go either way, and both situations would be conceptually and statistically equivalent. But it is conventional to fix the mean of the noise distribution at 0, so that increased discriminability corresponds graphically with the signal+noise distribution moving rightward along the latent axis.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-10-14T15:59:01.403Z
it's worth noting that one can also represent an increase in sensitivity as a decrease in the standard deviation of the distributions
Jeff
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-10-13T20:04:25.130Z
2013-10-13T20:04:25.130Z
Jake Westfall
<p>Is it conceptualised as the signal distribution moving rightward, or as the noise distribution moving leftward?</p>

<cognitive-psychology><signal-detection>
In SDT, how is an increase in detection sensitivity conceptualised in terms of the movement of the distributions?
user1205901 - Слава Україні
# In SDT, how is an increase in detection sensitivity conceptualised in terms of the movement of the distributions?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2013-10-13)

Is it conceptualised as the signal distribution moving rightward, or as the noise distribution moving leftward?

**Tags:** cognitive-psychology, signal-detection


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2013-10-13. Score: 6 | Accepted answer

Technically it can go either way, and both situations would be conceptually and statistically equivalent. But it is conventional to fix the mean of the noise distribution at 0, so that increased discriminability corresponds graphically with the signal+noise distribution moving rightward along the latent axis.

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: it's worth noting that one can also represent an increase in sensitivity as a decrease in the standard deviation of the distributions  

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