Smith E L, Harweth R S, Levi D M, Boltz R L
Vision Res. 1982;22(9):1153-61. doi: 10.1016/0042-6989(82)90080-3.
Increment contrast thresholds ware determined behaviourally as a function of background contrast for sinusoidal gratings with spatial frequencies between 0.5 and 8.0 c/deg. As has been previously reported for humans, the contrast discrimination functions ere characterized by a facilitation effect for low background contrasts and a masking effect for high background contrasts. The shapes of the functions varied with spatial frequency, but for all spatial frequencies, portion of the functions were adequately described by a power law. The shapes of the reaction time distributions obtained for near threshold stimuli suggested that at least two mechanisms with different spatio-temporal sensitivities were involved in detecting the stimulus and that the exact shape of the contrast discrimination function was dependent on which mechanism dominated detection.
