In previous work (e.g., Durlach and Braida, 1969; Braida and Durlach, 1972), we have implicitly assumed that sensitivity in absolute identification of sound intensity is independent of the payoff matrix. There are a number of reasons, however, to question the validity of this assumption. For example, if the payoff matrix causes the subject to focus his attention on a particular subrange of stimuli at the expense of the remaining stimuli, the sensitivity between pairs of stimuli in this subrange might be increased relative to the sensitivity between pairs of stimuli outside this range. This paper reports the results of a series of experiments designed to test the above‐mentioned assumption. On the whole, the results are consistent with this assumption. The only significant exception is that, for one of the five subjects tested, the total sensitivity varies with the payoff matrix (in a manner that appears unrelated to the specific properties of the payoff matrix). Also, the observed changes in response bias associated with the changes in payoff matrix are generally in the same direction as, but somewhat smaller than, the changes in bias that would occur in an optimal Bayes receiver.Subject Classification; [43]65.75, [43]65.50.