Abstract

Transient and sustained visual mechanisms were studied with single, flickering bars of various widths. Wide bars were largely detected on the basis of temporal luminance transients whereas thin bars were detected on the basis of the sustained contrast. A rapidly flickering uniform field selectively masked wide flickering bars, which suggests that different mechanisms detect wide versus thin flickering bars. For coarse spatial patterns, stimulus onsets were slightly more visible than stimulus offsets, and the response to onsets and offsets approximately summated.

© 1979 Optical Society of America

Visual Latency as a Function of Stimulus Onset, Offset, and Background Luminance*

Ralph W. Hansteen
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 61(9) 1190-1195 (1971)

Further evidence for four mechanisms mediating vision at threshold: Sensitivities to complex gratings and aperiodic stimuli

J. R. Bergen, H. R. Wilson, and J. D. Cowan
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 69(11) 1580-1587 (1979)

Criterion-free pattern and flicker thresholds

Christina A. Burbeck
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 71(11) 1343-1350 (1981)

Flicker sensitivity measured with intermittent stimuli: I. Influence of the stimulus duration on the flicker threshold

G. J. van der Wildt and J. P. Rijsdijk
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 69(5) 660-665 (1979)

Spatial frequency masking in human vision: binocular interactions

Gordon E. Legge
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 69(6) 838-847 (1979)