Publication: The transducer model for contrast detection and discrimination: formal relations, implications, and an empirical test.
Loading...
Official URL
Full text at PDC
Publication Date
2007
Advisors (or tutors)
Editors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Brill
Citations
Exportar
Abstract
The transducer function mu for contrast perception describes the nonlinear mapping of stimulus contrast onto an internal response. Under a signal detection theory approach, the transducer model of contrast perception states that the internal response elicited by a stimulus of contrast c is a random variable with mean mu(c). Using this approach, we derive the formal relations between the transducer function, the threshold-versus-contrast (TvC) function, and the psychometric functions for contrast detection and discrimination in 2AFC tasks. We show that the mathematical form of the TvC function is determined only by mu, and that the psychometric functions for detection and discrimination have a common mathematical form with common parameters emanating from, and only from, the transducer function mu and the form of the distribution of the internal responses. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these relations, which have bearings on the tenability of certain mathematical forms for the psychometric function and on the suitability of empirical approaches to model validation. We also present the results of a comprehensive test of these relations using two alternative forms of the transducer model: a three-parameter version that renders logistic psychometric functions and a five-parameter version using Foley's variant of the Naka-Rushton equation as transducer function. Our results support the validity of the formal relations implied by the general transducer model, and the two versions that were contrasted account for our data equally well.
Description
UCM subjects
Unesco subjects
Keywords
Citation
Alcalá-Quintana, R. and García-Pérez, M. A. (2004). The role of parametric assumptions in adaptive Bayesian estimation, Psychological Methods 9, 250–271.
Alcalá-Quintana, R. and García-Pérez, M. A. (2005). Interval bias in discrimination tasks, Perception (Suppl.) 34, 237–238.
Bird, C. M., Henning, G. B. and Wichmann, F. A. (2002). Contrast discrimination with sinusoidal gratings of different spatial frequency, J. Opt. Soc. Amer. A 19, 1267–1273.
Boynton, G. M. and Foley, J. M. (1999). Temporal sensitivity of human luminance pattern mechanisms determined by masking with temporally modulated stimuli, Vision Research 39, 1641–1656.
Burton, G. J. (1981). Contrast discrimination by the human visual system, Biol. Cybernet. 40, 27–38.
Campbell, F. W. and Kulikowski, J. J. (1966). Orientational selectivity of the human visual system, J. Physiol. 187, 437–445. Chen, C.-C. and Foley, J. M. (2004). Pattern detection: interactions between oriented and concentric patterns, Vision Research 44, 915–924.
Chen, C.-C. and Tyler, C. W. (2001). Lateral sensitivity modulation explains the flanker effect in contrast discrimination. Proc. Royal Soc. London B 268, 509–516.
Chen, C.-C. and Tyler, C. W. (2002). Lateral modulation of contrast discrimination: flanker orientation effects, Journal of Vision 2, 520–530, http://journalofvision.org/2/6/8/, DOI10:1167/2.6.8.
Evans, M., Hastings, N. and Peacock, B. (2000). Statistical Distributions, 3rd edn. Wiley, New York.
Foley, J. M. (1994). Human luminance pattern-vision mechanisms: masking experiments require a new model, J. Opt. Soc. Amer. A 11, 1710–1719.
Foley, J. M. and Chen, C.-C. (1999). Pattern detection in the presence of maskers that differ in spatial phase and temporal offset: threshold measurements and model, Vision Research 39, 3855–3872.
Foley, J. M. and Legge, G. E. (1981). Contrast detection and near-threshold discrimination in human vision, Vision Research 21, 1041–1053.
Foley, J. M. and Schwarz, W. (1998). Spatial attention: effect of position and number of distractor patterns on the threshold-versus contrast function for contrast discrimination, J. Opt. Soc. Amer. A 15, 1036–1047.
García-Pérez, M. A. (1998). Forced-choice staircases with fixed step sizes: Asymptotic and small-sample properties, Vision Research 38, 1861–1881.
García-Pérez, M. A. (2001). Yes-no staircases with fixed step sizes: psychometric properties and optimal setup, Optometry Vision Sci. 78, 56–64.
García-Pérez, M. A. (2002). Properties of some variants of adaptive staircases with fixed step sizes, Spatial Vision 15, 303–321.
García-Pérez, M. A. and Alcalá-Quintana, R. (2005). Sampling plans for fitting the psychometric function, Spanish J. Psychol. 8, 256–289.
Gorea, A. and Sagi, D. (2001). Disentangling signal from noise in visual contrast discrimination, Nature Neurosci. 4, 1146–1150. 20.
Henning, G. B., Bird, C. M. and Wichmann, F. A. (2002). Contrast discrimination with pulse trains in pink noise, J. Opt. Soc. Amer. A 19, 1259–1266.
Huang, L. and Dobkins, K. R. (2005). Attentional effects on contrast discrimination in humans: evidence for both contrast gain and response gain, Vision Research 45, 1201–1212.
Katkov, M., Tsodyks, M. and Sagi, D. (2006a). Singularities in the inverse modeling of 2AFC contrast discrimination data, Vision Research 46, 259–266.