THE CONTRAST-RESPONSE OF THE PERIPHERY EFFECT

This report examines the effect of varying the contrast of a flickerin g remote surround on thresholds for flicker detection, and color detec tion in rapidly flickering red and green foveal test targets, presente d on a steady white background. Flicker in the surround reduced flicke r sensitivity for the foveal test stimuli and yielded a periphery effe ct (PE), whereas it had no effect on color sensitivity (no PE). The ma gnitude of the PE increased non-linearly as a function of increasing s urround flicker contrast. Much of the increase took place at low contr asts (< 0.20) and half-saturation of the PE occurred at 0.16 and 0.29 contrast for the red and green targets, respectively. (C) 1998 Elsevie r Science Ltd. All rights reserved.