title: Masking with faces in central visual field under a variety of temporal schedules.
abstract: With a few exceptions, previous studies have explored masking using either a backward mask or a common onset trailing mask, but not both. In a series of experiments, we demonstrate the use of faces in central visual field as a viable method to study the relationship between these two types of mask schedule. We tested observers in a two alternative forced choice face identification task, where both target and mask comprised synthetic faces, and show that a simple model can successfully predict masking across a variety of masking schedules ranging from a backward mask to a common onset trailing mask and a number of intermediate variations. Our data are well accounted for by a window of sensitivity to mask interference that is centered at around 100 ms.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Vision Research, York University, Canada. Electronic address: marwan.daar@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Marwan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Daar
authors.affiliation: Centre for Vision Research, York University, Canada. Electronic address: hrwilson@yorku.ca.
authors.forename: Hugh R
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Wilson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D000066499:Facial Recognition / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010470:Perceptual Masking / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D013997:Time Factors; D014794:Visual Fields / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: Backward masking; Common onset masking; Masking; Object substitution