Retinotopic sensitisation to spatial scale: evidence for flexible spatial frequency processing in scene perception
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 16, 2026

Measuring Attention and Visual Processing Speed by Model-based Analysis of Temporal-order Judgments
Published on: January 23, 2017
Emre Ozgen1, Helen E Payne, Paul T Sowden
1Department of Psychology, Bilkent University, Bilkent, Ankara 06800, Turkey. Eozgen@bilkent.edu.tr
Abstract:
Observers can use spatial scale information flexibly depending on categorisation task and on their prior sensitisation. Here, we explore whether attentional modulation of spatial frequency processing at early stages of visual analysis may be responsible. In three experiments, we find that observers' perception of spatial frequency (SF) band-limited scene stimuli is determined by the SF content of images previously experienced at that location during a sensitisation phase. We conclude that these findings are consistent with the involvement of relatively early, retinotopically mapped, stages of visual analysis, supporting the attentional modulation of spatial frequency channels account of sensitisation effects.
Related Concept Videos
Vision
Anatomy of the Eyeball
Depth Perception and Spatial Vision
The Retina
Parallel Processing
Color Vision

