An action spectrum for spatial-frequency adaptation

The mechanism of spatial-frequency adaptation, and channel-bandwidth estimates derived from adaptation, were examined in a series of three experiments. The first two experiments measured adaptation as a function of both the frequency and modulation of the adapt stimulus. The threshold for producing adaptation at different adapt frequencies is considered to be an action spectrum whose half-amplitude bandwidth is found to lie between 1/3 and 2/3 octave. The third experiment employed a novel adaptation paradigm--varying the adapt contrast until the test grating was no longer perceptible--but the results supported those of the earlier experiments. It is concluded that adaptation is probably due to a fatigue-like mechanism, and that a sensitivity measure of adaptation (action spectrum) is probably a better representation of underlying channel tuning than is the more customary response measure.