Visual aftereffect of texture density contingent on color of frame

Abstract

An aftereffect of perceived texture density contingent on the color of a surrounding region is reported. In a series of experiments, participants were adapted, with fixation, to stimuli in which the relative density of two achromatic texture regions was perfectly correlated with the color presented in a surrounding region. Following adaptation, the perceived relative density of the two regions was contingent on the color of the surrounding region or of the texture elements themselves. For example, if high density on the left was correlated with a blue surround during adaptation (and high density on the right with a yellow surround), then in order for the left and right textures to appear equal in the assessment phase, denser texture was required on the left in the presence of a blue surround (and denser texture on the right in the context of a yellow surround). Contingent aftereffects were found (1) with black-and-white scatter-dot textures, (2) with luminance-balanced textures, and (3) when the texture elements, rather than the surrounds, were colored during assessment. Effect size was decreased when the elements themselves were colored, but also when spatial subportions of the surround were used for the presentation of color. The effect may be mediated by retinal color spreading (Peppel, 1986)and appears consistent with a local associative account of contingent aftereffects, such as Barlow's (1990) model of modifIable inhibition.After adaptation to a dense texture localized in a specific region of the visual field, a visual aftereffect develops such that textures presented in that region will appear much less dense than when presented in another, nonadapted region (Anstis, 1974;Durgin & Proffitt, 1991). In the present paper I show that this aftereffect of texture density (not to be confused with spatial frequency) can be made contingent on color information presented in a spatially distinct (and otherwise untextured) region of the display. Previously, aftereffects both of motion (Potts & Harris, 1975) and ofcolor (Siegel, Allan, & Eissenberg, 1992) have been made contingent on information presented in a surrounding region orframe (color and texture in the former case and lightness in the latter). However, no framecontingent aftereffects have been reported in which the apparent spatial distribution ofluminance contrast is altered. Thus, the present study represents a unique demonstration of an aftereffect of spatial pattern contingent on information in the surround.It is often possible to make the perceptual distortion of one visual dimension contingent on the presence of another quite different dimension. For example, McCollough

Visuomotor adaptation without vision?

“…Barlow (1990) has argued that contingent aftereffects, in general, reflect a technique for efficient coding of sensory information by encoding only departures from normal correlations (see also Durgin 1996;Durgin and Proffitt 1996;Helson 1964). Other formulations of contingent aftereffects include the notion of error correction with respect to an internal standard (e.g.…”

“…For purposes of analysis, we considered the change in distance advanced as the logarithm of the ratio between measures after and before adaptation (cf. Durgin, 1996). Statistical analyses of aftereffect strength were therefore computed on differences of logarithms (i.e.…”

Probing Unconscious Visual Processing with the McCollough Effect

“…The McCollough effect is preserved in the absence of stimulation (Jones & Holding, 1975;MacKay & MacKay, 1975) and the form of decay can be modified to some extent by pre-and postinduction exposure to achromatic gratings (Skowbo, 1988). A third criticism is that, because there are many different types of contingent aftereffects, the number of such double-duty detectors would have to be prohibitively large (Harris, 1980; for review, see Durgin, 1996;Humphrey, 1998 Barlow, 1990Barlow, , 1997Humphrey, 1998;Savoy, 1984). In the case of the McCollough effect, mechanisms that code for color and separate achromatic systems that code for orientation would be involved.…”

“…There is a large literature that is concerned not only with the properties of such aftereffects, but also with what they may tell us, at a theoretical level, about the mechanisms of vision (for various proposals and reviews, see Barlow, 1990;Broerse & O'Shea, 1995;Dodwell & Humphrey, 1990;Durgin, 1996;Durgin & Proffitt, 1996;Harris, 1980;Humphrey, 1998;Siegel & Allan, 1993;Skowbo, Timney, Gentry, & Morant, 1975;Stromeyer, 1978). In this paper, most of our discussion will be devoted to the McCollough effect, the most commonly studied contingent aftereffect.…”

Cortex, Countercurrent Context, and Dimensional Integration of Lifetime Memory

“…In a setting pervaded by local inhibitory interneurons a storage process that decreases the excitability of committed synapses will release a local neighborhood around storing tissue from the inhibitory influence that was exerted on that neighborhood by the activity of the storing tissue prior to its loss of excitability (Sachs, 1967). Such "marginal sensitization" effects can be seen fleetingly at the level of single cells even in primary sensory areas (Müller et al 1999) and with longer time-course in perception, notably in perceptual adaptation after-effects (see Durgin 1995, and references therein). At the level of permanent rather than temporary storage such sensitization would promote the progressive (and obligatory) sequential consumption of tissue for memory storage (see Section 3, above) by increasing the probability that tissue at the margins of storing tissue will be the next target of storage.…”