Effects of Background Illumination and Target Contrast on Flashblindness Recovery Time.

Abstract

Seven subjects were shown a series of Landolt Cs with gaps oriented toward one of eight compass directions. After a randomly occurring flash, the subjects were asked to identify the gap orientation of the target. A tungsten-halogen lamp was used as the flash source. The duration was 100 msec and the luminance was 60000 foot-lamberts. Five background luminances (16,62,120,230, and 575 foot-lamberts) and four target contrast ratios (0.1,0.2,0.3 and 0.5) were used in this experiment. Results show recovery times at the 0.1 contrast level differ significantly from those obtained at the other levels regardless of background. Recovery times on the 16 foot-lambert background level were significantly different from all other backgrounds regardless of contrast. There were no differences between recovery times at the other constrast levels or background luminances. (Author)

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 01, 1979
Accession Number
ADA071906

Entities

People

  • David C. Smedley
  • Diana R. Nelson

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Analysis Of Variance
  • Biomedical Research
  • Brightness
  • Color Temperature
  • Contrast
  • Eye Safety
  • Flashblindness
  • Identification
  • Laboratory Equipment
  • Measurement
  • Reaction Time
  • Recognition
  • Security
  • Square Roots
  • Square Waves
  • Still Projectors

Readers

  • Vision Science/Vision Psychology/Cognitive Neuroscience.