The Effect of Spatial Frequency and Contrast on Visual Persistence

Abstract

The visual persistence of sinusoidal gratings of varying spatial frequency and contrast was measured. It was found that the persistence of low-contrast gratings was longer than that of high-contrast stimuli for all spatial frequencies investigated. At higher contrast levels of 1 and 4 cycles deg-1 gratings, a tendency for persistence to be independent of contrast was observed. For 12 cycles deg-1 gratings, however, persistence continued to decrease with increasing contrast. These results are compared with recently published data on other temporal responses, and are discussed in terms of the different properties of sustained and transient channels.

Spatial frequency and the detection of temporal discontinuity in superimposed and adjacent gratings

“…Over the 1 log unit range from 1 to 10 cpd, threshold was a linear rather than logarithmic function of frequency, since, for this data, a logarithmic transform of the spatial frequency effect introduced a significant quadratic component in the main effect and interactions. 1 In showing that the threshold lSI for judgment of temporal discontinuity increases linearly with spatial frequency, the present results are in line with those obtained by Meyer and Maguire (1977) for squarewave gratings and by Bowling et al (1979) for sinewave gratings. Two points are noteworthy: first, in the present results the thresholds are much lower than those obtained by the other workers with their "gap" detection criterion, and second, there is an interaction between spatial frequency and contrast which Bowling et al (1979) did not find.…”

“…Recent workers concerned with the relationship between spatial frequency and persistence (Bowling et al, 1979;Meyer & Maguire, 1977) have employed a recycling procedure whereby the grating and blank interval are alternated for a number of cycles. Such a procedure may produce synchronization of periodic elements in a cellular ensemble, as has been suggested occurs in CFF studies by Pieron (see Boynton, 1972, p. 204).…”

“…This has been necessitated by the presence of physical transient artifacts when there is switching from one channel to another. Typically, subjects have been instructed to ignore these transients and to detect gaps or blanks, and some training is required to develop a consistent threshold criterion (Bowling, Lovegrove, & Mapperson, 1979). We have developed video display equipment allowing much tighter threshold judgments for very brief temporal presentations.…”

Apparent duration and spatial structure

“…In general, factors that increase perceptual lag, such as high spatial frequency and low contrast (Parker, 1980), will also increase visual persistence (Bowling et al, 1979;Coltheart, 1980). The phenomenal duration of the pattern, however, has been reported to be inversely related to its spatial frequency (Long & Beaton, 1980, Experiment 1).…”

“…As spatial frequency increases, so does persistence (Bowling & Lovegrove, 1980;Bowling, Lovegrove, & Mapperson, 1979;Lovegrove & Meyer, 1984;Meyer & Maguire, 1977). Persistence has also been shown to vary inversely with the contrast of the stimulus (Bowling & Lovegrove, 1980;Bowling et al, 1979;Marx & May, 1983). In the task in these studies, a briefly presented (50-msec) square-wave grating was cycled with a variable duration blank field of the same average lumiCopyright 1992 Psychonomic Society, Inc. 222…”