Visual persistence: Effects of flash luminance, duration and energy

Bowen, Richard W.; Pola, Jordan; Matin, Leonard

doi:10.1016/0042-6989(74)90079-0

Cited by 234 publications

(137 citation statements)

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“…However, it should be mentioned that, in Petersik and Pantle's (1979) study, the contrast of the elements was varied by decreasing the intensity of the elements from 1.49 to 0.30 mL relative to a nonchanging uniform background of 1.65 mL. We know also from the work of Bowen et al (1974) that the duration of visual persistence varies inversely with stimulus intensity. Hence, by using increasingly less intense elements in order to increase their contrast relative to a uniformly brighter background, Petersik and Pantle's (1979) procedure of varying element contrast may have led to an increase in persistence as element intensity decreased.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…tion. We know from prior studies (Bowen, Pola, & Matin, 1974;Bowling & Lovegrove, 1980;Breitmeyer, Levi, & Harwerth, 1981;Di Lollo, 1977;Meyer & Maguire, 1977) that with spatially overlapping stimuli, such as comprise the two inner elements, pattern persistencedecreases as stimulus size or duration increases. Hence, as was found (Breitmeyer & Ritter, in press;Petersik & Pantle, 1979), one would expect the ISIs at which transitions from element to group motion occur to decrease.…”

Section: University Of Houston Houston Texasmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Visual persistence and the effect of eccentric viewing, element size, and frame duration on bistable stroboscopic motion percepts

Breitmeyer

Ritter

1986

Perception & Psychophysics

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Bistable stroboscopic motion percepts can be generated when two frames, each consisting of three square elements, are presented alternately at varying interstimulus intervals (ISIs). Endto-end element motion is observed at short ISIs; group motion is observed at long ISIs. We found that the ISIs at which transitions from element to group motion occurred decreased as (1) viewing eccentricity, (2) element size, and (3) frame durations increased. Since visual pattern persistence also decreases as each of these three parameters increases, we conclude that such persistence plays a role in determining which percept dominates in bistable stroboscopic motion.One phenomenon that accompanies a briefly displayed stimulus pattern is visual pattern persistence. Two such patterns displayed in spatiotemporal sequence additionally produce the sensation of stroboscopic motion. Since pattern persistence also occurs in two-or multiple-pattern sequences (Allport, 1968;Di Lollo & Hogben, 1985), we can ask how and to what extent persistence and stroboscopic motion are related (e.g., see Farrell, 1984). To address this question, we investigated the competing bistable stroboscopic motion percepts reported by Pantle and Picciano (1976). To produce such percepts, stimuli such as those shown in Figure 1 are presented in cyclic alternation. Frame 1 contains three equispaced and horizontally arrayed elements; Frame 2 contains the same elements displaced to the right by the center-to-center distance separating two adjacent elements. Thus, the two right elements of Frame 1 and the two left elements of Frame 2 overlap spatially. When these two frames are alternately flashed for several cycles at varying interstimuIus intervals (ISIs), one can observe one of two motion percepts, depending on lSI. At short ISIs, one sees the middle two, overlapping elements as stationary and the endmost elements moving back and forth. This perception of end-to-end element motion is replaced at longer ISIs by a perception of group motion in which three elements are seen to move back and forth as a group.In a separate study (Breitmeyer & Ritter, in press), we showed that an overall increase of group motion-and hence a decrease of element motion-could be effected by increasing either element size or, as Petersik and Pantle (1979) had done, frame duration. In particular, the lSI at which transitions from element to group motion occurred decreased with increases in element size or frame durations. These results were interpreted in terms of the Requests for reprints should be directed to B. G. Breitmeyer, Department of Psychology, University of Houston, University Park, Houston, TX 77004. hypothesis that the perception of end-to-end element motion depends on the perception of stationarity of the inner two elements (Braddick, 1980; Braddick & Adlard, 1978;Pantle & Petersik, 1980). That is to say, over successive frames, the spatially overlapping elements are temporally integrated by the perceptual system. Moreover, we suggested that a process responsible for such ...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: University Of Houston Houston Texasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visual persistence and the effect of eccentric viewing, element size, and frame duration on bistable stroboscopic motion percepts

Breitmeyer

Ritter

1986

Perception & Psychophysics

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“…This would confound the duration of the mask with its brightness. In earlier investigations, this confound has been resolved by displaying briefer stimuli at higher luminance values, so that all stimuli appear to be of equal brightness regardless of duration (Bowen, Pola, & Matin, 1974;Serviere, Miceli, & Galifret, 1977). This procedure yields equal-energy stimuli up to the critical duration.…”

Section: Luminance Calibrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Competition for consciousness among visual events: The psychophysics of reentrant visual processes.

Lollo¹,

Enns²,

Rensink³

2000

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

641

1,047

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Advances in neuroscience implicate reentrant signaling as the predominant form of communication between brain areas. This principle was used in a series of masking experiments that defy explanation by feed-forward theories. The masking occurs when a brief display of target plus mask is continued with the mask alone. Two masking processes were found: an early process affected by physical factors such as adapting luminance and a later process affected by attentional factors such as set size. This later process is called masking by object substitution, because it occurs whenever there is a mismatch between the reentrant visual representation and the ongoing lower level activity. Iterative reentrant processing was formalized in a computational model that provides an excellent fit to the data. The model provides a more comprehensive account of all forms of visual masking than do the long-held feed-forward views based on inhibitory contour interactions. From the time a stimulus first enters the eye to the time a percept emerges into consciousness, the initial stimulus has been coded at several levels in the visual system. One of the main goals in studying visual information processing is to specify the representations at each level and the temporal sequence between them (Lachman, Lachman, & Butterfield, 1979). Historically, that sequence was regarded as being mainly feed forward, with processing advancing from simple to increasingly complex attributes, along brain pathways that converge to a common area in which conscious perception occurs. Here, we present an alternative approach, one more in keeping with recent advances in visual neurophysiology. Because we now know that reentrant signals are a major form of communication between brain regions, it is time to begin making explicit use of reentrant processing in theories of perception. To show that this can be done effectively in one domain, we report on a series of psychophysical experiments involving visual masking. In our view, a similar approach could be adopted in other areas of visual perception, especially those in which temporal aspects of processing are at issue.

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“…Burr (1980) observed that moving stimuli were not as blurred as would be expected. Studies of visual persistence show that stimuli persist for hundreds of milliseconds (e.g., Bowen, Pola, & Matin, 1974), which would produce substantial blurring of moving stimuli. However, Burr suggested that mechanisms responsible for detecting motion inhibited persisting representations ofa stimulus to deblur the moving percept.…”

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confidence: 99%

Cortical dynamics of lateral inhibition: Visual persistence and ISI

Francis

1996

Perception & Psychophysics

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Psychophysical studies show that increasing the interstimulus interval (lSI) between two stimuli decreases persistence of the first stimulus. Whilesome researchers account for these results with interactions of transient and sustained inhibition, this paper describes an alternative explanation. In a neural-network model of boundary detection called the boundary contour system, persistence is the result of feedback-generated reverberations. Mechanisms to control these reverberations include lateral inhibition, which computer simulations show allows persistence in the network to qualitatively match the psychophysicaldata. Additionalsimulations predict that increasing the duration of the second stimulus should cause persistence to increase with lSI. The model links psychophysical data on visual persistence with computational requirements of spatial vision and properties of cells in visual cortex. Burr (1980) observed that moving stimuli were not as blurred as would be expected. Studies of visual persistence show that stimuli persist for hundreds of milliseconds (e.g., Bowen, Pola, & Matin, 1974), which would produce substantial blurring of moving stimuli. However, Burr suggested that mechanisms responsible for detecting motion inhibited persisting representations ofa stimulus to deblur the moving percept. Di Lollo and Hogben (1987) found an inverse proximity effect, where nearby stimuli that were spatially close and temporally contiguous reduced the persistence of nonmoving stimuli. This finding suggested that motion-detection mechanisms were not critical for deblurring moving stimuli, and that lateral inhibition interacting across space and time inhibited persisting representations of past stimuli. Farrell, Pavel, and Sperling (1990) showed similar results using stimuli that moved in apparent motion. They also developed a descriptive model of visual persistence that outlined how lateral inhibition from a new stimulus affects the decay of old stimulus representations. In this model, persistence is the result ofa fading trace, and lateral inhibition decreases the strength of the trace so that it more quickly decays below a constant threshold.While the idea of persistence as a fading trace is intuitively appealing, the mechanisms underlying the trace and their interaction with mechanisms oflateral inhibition appear to be more complicated than the Farrell et al. (1990) description. Di Lollo andHogben (1987) found that the effects of nearby stimuli were stronger with longer stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs), and Castet (1994), using a method very similar to Farrell et al.'s, demonstrated that persistence ofa leading stimulus decreases as Correspondence should be addressed to the author at Department of Psychological Sciences, 1364 Psychological Science Building, Purdue University, West Layfayette, IN 47907-1364 (e-mail: gfrancis@psych. purdue.edu). the interstimulus interval (lSI) between it and a trailing stimulus increases. Figure la shows data for 2 subjects from Castet. Farrell et al.'s model did not consider the...

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Visual persistence: Effects of flash luminance, duration and energy

Cited by 234 publications

References 13 publications

Visual persistence and the effect of eccentric viewing, element size, and frame duration on bistable stroboscopic motion percepts

Visual persistence and the effect of eccentric viewing, element size, and frame duration on bistable stroboscopic motion percepts

Competition for consciousness among visual events: The psychophysics of reentrant visual processes.

Cortical dynamics of lateral inhibition: Visual persistence and ISI

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