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Related Experiment Videos

Disappearance elicited by contrast decrements.

James G May1, Kyriakos M Tsiappoutas, Moira B Flanagan

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of New Orleans, Lakefront, New Orleans, Louisiana 70148, USA. jmay@uno.edu

Perception & Psychophysics
|September 6, 2003
PubMed
Summary

Vision scientists discovered a new way to make visual stimuli disappear from awareness using contrast decrements (CDs). This phenomenon offers rapid disappearance without after-images, unlike existing methods.

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Area of Science:

  • Visual perception
  • Neuroscience
  • Psychophysics

Background:

  • Visual stimuli can disappear from consciousness, a phenomenon studied for centuries.
  • Known causes include stationary peripheral images (Troxler effect) and contrast increment masking.
  • Both require image stabilization on the retina.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To describe a novel phenomenon causing visual stimuli to disappear from conscious awareness.
  • To investigate the characteristics of disappearance induced by contrast decrements (CDs).
  • To compare CD-induced disappearance with existing phenomena like the Troxler effect and masking.

Main Methods:

  • Four experiments were conducted to examine the characteristics of CD-induced visual disappearance.
  • Stimuli were nearly stabilized images in the visual periphery.

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  • Contrast decrements were induced by changes in target or background luminance.

    • Main Results:

    • Contrast decrements (CDs) can cause nearly stabilized peripheral images to disappear instantaneously from awareness.
    • This disappearance occurs without significant adaptation periods and lacks after-images.
    • Loss of sensitivity to stimuli was immediate, lasting approximately 2 seconds, and increased with eccentricity.

    Conclusions:

    • Contrast decrements represent a third distinct mechanism for removing visual stimuli from conscious awareness.
    • CD-induced disappearance is rapid and differs from Troxler effect adaptation and masking.
    • The phenomenon's characteristics, including duration and frequency, were elucidated, offering new insights into visual perception.