Abstract
Contrast thresholds were measured for sinusoidal gratings, with Gaussian spatial and temporal envelopes, as a function of spatial extent in the presence and absence of dynamic white noise. Spatial frequencies ranged from 0.5 to 32c/deg. Efficiency is defined as the ratio of the ideal's contrast-energy threshold to that of the observer under study, each at the same performance level. For spatial frequencies from 0.5 to 8 c/deg. efficiencies for gratings in noise ranged from 8 to 30% for widths less than one cycle, but dropped rapidly as the width was increased beyond one cycle. Spatial summation of gratings in noise resembles the performance of a cross-correlator whose template is matched to a signal about 1 cycle wide (between 1/e points). The psychometric function slope is consistent with this idea.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1977-1990 |
| Number of pages | 14 |
| Journal | Vision Research |
| Volume | 24 |
| Issue number | 12 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 1984 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:paperfo rmed part of a doctoral dissertation submitted to the University of Minnesota. The research was supported by PHS grant BY02857 to D: Legge and a University of Minnesota Doctoral Dissertation Grant. This naoer was completed at the Physiological Laboratory. University of Cambridge, with the support of an NIH postdoctoral fellowship EY05660.
Keywords
- Contrast detection
- Efficiency
- Visual noise