The effect of glare on reaction times on peripheral vision

AGUIRRE R.C.; BARRAZA J.F.; COLOMBO E.M.

Arezzo, Italia

Congreso; European Conference on Visual Perception; 2007

Universidad de Florencia, Dpto, de Psicología

In previous works we have shown that the effect of glare on reaction times (RTs) in foveal vision depends on the spatial frequency of the stimulus. This is due to the selectivity of Magno and Parvocellular pathways to spatial frequency. In this work we extend this study to peripheral vision, considering mesopic adaptation. We measured RTs of achromatic sinusoidal gratings (1, 2, 4, 8 c/deg) as a function of contrast for different eccentricities (0, 7, 14, 23 deg) and glare (0, 15 and 60 lux). For all situations RTs increase linearly when it is plotted versus the inverse of contrast. The slope of these lines increases with increasing glare for all eccentricities. For low spatial frequencies the slopes do not change for different eccentricities, which mean that eccentricity does not modify the effect of glare on RT. However, for high spatial frequency, the effect of glare is strengthened by eccentricity. These results are consistent with the evidence supporting the hypothesis that RTs and CSF are driven by the same mechanisms.