Spatial frequency discrimination: visual long-term memory or criterion setting?

Lages, M. and Treisman, M. (1998) Spatial frequency discrimination: visual long-term memory or criterion setting? Vision Research, 38(4), pp. 557-572. (doi: 10.1016/S0042-6989(97)88333-2)

Abstract

A long-term sensory memory is believed to account for spatial frequency discrimination when reference and test stimuli are separated by long intervals. We test an alternative proposal: that discrimination is determined by the range of test stimuli, through their entrainment of criterion-setting processes. Experiments 1 and 2 show that the 50% point of the psychometric function is largely determined by the midpoint of the stimulus range, not by the reference stimulus. Experiment 3 shows that discrimination of spatial frequencies is similarly affected by orthogonal contextual stimuli and parallel contextual stimuli and that these effects can be explained by criterion-setting processes. These findings support the hypothesis that discrimination over long intervals is explained by the operation of criterion-setting processes rather than by long-term sensory retention of a neural representation of the stimulus.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Lages, Dr Martin
• Authors: Lages, M., and Treisman, M.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Psychology
• Journal Name: Vision Research
• Publisher: Pergamon
• ISSN: 0042-6989
• ISSN (Online): 1878-5646