Catherine is at a crowded baseball game when she loses track of her son, Nick. Despite the loud cheering and noise of the crowd, she can pinpoint his location when he calls for her because she can distinguish the sound of his voice from the all the other voices. This illustrates ________ theory.

A) absolute threshold
B) just noticeable difference
C) Weber's
D) signal detection

Signal Detection Theory

A theoretical framework used to understand how decision makers differentiate between important stimuli in the presence of noise, focusing on the ability to correctly identify signals.

Absolute Threshold

The absolute threshold is the minimum intensity of stimulus that an individual can detect at least 50% of the time.

Just Noticeable Difference

The minimum level of stimulus intensity change needed to detect a difference between two stimuli.