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Reaction time measures of adaptation to chromatic contrast

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 July 2008

N.R.A. PARRY*
Affiliation:
Vision Science Centre, Manchester Royal Eye Hospital, United Kingdom
I.J. MURRAY
Affiliation:
Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester, United Kingdom
D.J. McKEEFRY
Affiliation:
Department of Optometry, University of Bradford, United Kingdom
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: N.R.A. Parry, Vision Science Centre, Manchester Royal Eye Hospital, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9WH, UK. E-mail: neil.parry@manchester.ac.uk

Abstract

Simple reaction times (RTs) were measured to brief temporally blurred (total onset 570 ms) Gaussian isoluminant chromatic patches (s.d. 0.5°) whose chromaticities lay along the cardinal chromatic axes (0°, 90°, 180°, and 270° in MBDKL color space). Bipolar adapting stimuli were employed (0° versus 180° or 90° versus 270°). These were larger Gaussian blobs (s.d. 1°), modulating sinusoidally between the two hues at 1 Hz. Throughout, the background was illuminant “C” (x = 0.31, y = 0.316, L = 12.5). In a single run, a series of 64 or 32 stimuli were presented without adaptation, followed by 64 or 32 stimuli each of which was preceded by 3 s of adaptation, either along the same or the orthogonal chromatic axis. Finally, 192 or 128 RTs were recorded to measure the time course of recovery from adaptation. Both adapting and test stimuli were presented at fixed supra-threshold contrasts. The effect of adaptation was seen as a lengthening of the RT, which occurred in the first few seconds of the adaptation period. After cessation of adaptation, there was a similarly rapid shortening of RT, although full recovery took 60–90 s. Adaptation gain functions suggested that the S-(L + M) system was less prone to adaptation than L-M.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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