Testing the accuracy enhancement of pairwise comparisons by a Monte Carlo experiment

A statistical experiment was designed to check if the pairwise comparisons method, which was introduced by Fechner in 1860 and developed by Thurstone in 1927, really improves the accuracy of estimation of stimuli. The experiment has been designed and implemented to minimize statistical bias. The accuracy improvement by the pairwise comparisons method (when compared with the direct rating method) is decisive: the mean value of the improvement exceeds 500% and a 95% confidence interval is (4.657, 5.389). (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.