Scanning from coarse to fine spatial scales in the human visual system after the onset of a stimulus

The manner in which the spatial characteristics of simple discrimination tasks change with time after the onset of a stimulus were examined. The experiments measured the improvements in sensitivity to the length, orientation, curvature, and stereoscopic depth of short lines that accrue with increase...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of the Optical Society of America. A, Optics and image science Vol. 4; no. 10; p. 2006
Main Author Watt, R J
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 01.10.1987
Subjects
Humans
Photic Stimulation - methods
Space Perception - physiology
Visual Acuity
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Summary:The manner in which the spatial characteristics of simple discrimination tasks change with time after the onset of a stimulus were examined. The experiments measured the improvements in sensitivity to the length, orientation, curvature, and stereoscopic depth of short lines that accrue with increased exposure durations. These improvements can be consistently interpreted in terms of a change of the spatial scale of analysis from coarse to fine over a period of at least 1000 msec. Variations in visual resolution acuity over the same period are negligible, and it is concluded that the changes in spatial characteristics concern the range of spatial filters in operation. This range progressively shrinks after stimulus presentation.
ISSN:0740-3232
DOI:10.1364/josaa.4.002006