title: A central performance drop with luminance stimuli requiring spatial integration.
abstract: This study reports four experiments that analyzed detection performance for luminance contrasts as a function of retinal eccentricity in order to find further support and explanations for the central performance drop (CPD) in the fovea. In the first experiment, 10 participants (16-37 years of age) had to detect a target patch in a stimulus consisting of bright and dark pixels. Luminance differences between target and context areas were achieved by placing a different number of bright (and dark) pixels in the target and the context area. Results showed a marked CPD; that is, performance did not peak in the fovea but in the parafovea. A spatial integration hypothesis was proposed to explain this CPD. Alternative explanations were tested in three further experiments with a total of 28 participants from 19-46 years of age (using the decision criterion effect, the selective masking effect, and inhibition by high frequencies). The findings did not contradict the spatial-integration hypothesis.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, University of Erlangen-Nüremberg, Erlangen, Germany. meinecke@rzmail.uni-erlangen.de
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Meinecke
authors.forename: Lothar
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kehrer
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008029:Lighting; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012160:Retina / Q000502:physiology; D013028:Space Perception