Abstract
Observers were presented with compound gratings consisting of a high- (5.0 cycles/deg, cpd) and a low-frequency (0.5 cpd) sinusoid. The orientation of each component was independent and varied randomly between horizontal and vertical. The observers were instructed to signal the orientation of one component (the target) and ignore the other. The dependent measure was the observers’ choice reaction time (CRT) to signal the orientation of the target grating. CRTs to low-frequency targets were similar whether or not the high-frequency component was present, but CRTs to high-frequency targets were slowed by the presence of the low-frequency component. This asymmetric interference was obtained when the contrasts of the individual components were adjusted so as to produce equivalent CRTs when each was presented alone. Reducing the low-frequency contrast below the level needed to match the CRTs generated less interference, and in some cases generated asymmetric interference favoring the high-frequency component. The magnitude of low-frequency interference was also reduced when the stimulus onsets were gradual rather than abrupt. CRTs to compounds in which the component orientations were always the same but varied randomly across trials produced little evidence of a redundancy gain, and the obtained redundancy effect was less than that predicted from a simple model of suprathreshold probability summation between independent frequency and orientation-specific channels. The results are considered in terms of inhibitory interactions between transient and sustained channels.
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This research was supported by a faculty research award from Dartmouth College.
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Hughes, H.C. Asymmetric interference between components of suprathreshold compound gratings. Perception & Psychophysics 40, 241–250 (1986). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03211503
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03211503