Contrast inconstancy across changes in polarity

In this study, we show that negative polarity noise patterns appear to have a higher contrast than positive polarity noise patterns with identical expected Fourier amplitude spectra. This demonstrates a failure of contrast constancy over changes in pattern polarity. An examination of local contrast measures shows that negative polarity noise has a wider distribution of local contrast values than positive polarity noise. We propose that the difference in apparent contrast between the two patterns may be based upon spatial non-linearities in the combination of local contrast measures.