Identification of facial images in peripheral vision.
Contrast sensitivity for face identification was measured as a function of image size to find out whether foveal and peripheral performance would become equivalent by magnification. Size scaling was not sufficient for this task, but when the data was scaled both in size and contrast dimensions, there was no significant eccentricity-dependent variation in the data, i.e. for equivalent performance both the size and contrast needed to increase in the periphery. By utilising spatial noise added to the images we found that in periphery information was utilised less efficiently and peripheral inferiority arose completely from lower efficiency, not from increased internal noise.
Department of Optometry and Vision Sciences, Cardiff University, Redwood Building, King Edward VII Avenue, Cathays Park, Cardiff CF10 3NB, Wales, UK. makela@cf.ac.uk
P
P
Mäkelä
R
R
Näsänen
J
J
Rovamo
D
D
Melmoth
D015350:Contrast Sensitivity / Q000502:physiology; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D005584:Fovea Centralis / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D016018:Least-Squares Analysis; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D012858:Size Perception / Q000502:physiology; D014794:Visual Fields / Q000502:physiology*