Contrast Sensitivity of the Human Visual System at One Luminance Level While Adapted to a Stimulus at Another Luminance Level.

Abstract

This report documents an investigation of the hypothesis that receptive field organization in the human visual system changes due to a change in stimulus average luminance. Adaptation and testing at the same average luminance produced a depression in the contrast sensitivity curve centered over the adapting spatial frequency. A difference in average luminance between the adapting pattern and the test pattern was expected to produce a spatial frequency shift in the depression of the adaptation curve. Some shift in the adaptation depression was observed indicating that some kind of change in the visual system had occurred, however, the results did not provide sufficient evidence to conclude that a receptive field size change had taken place as a result of the luminance change.

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 1977
Accession Number
ADA055238

Entities

People

  • Carl P. Scheidegg

Organizations

  • Air Force Institute of Technology

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Contrast
  • Depression
  • Frequency
  • Frequency Shift
  • Luminance
  • Sensitivity

Fields of Study

  • Psychology

Readers

  • Vision Science/Vision Psychology/Cognitive Neuroscience.