Effect of glare on simple reaction time

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

JOURNAL OF THE OPTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA A-OPTICS IMAGE SCIENCE AND VISION

Optical Society of America

Lugar: Washington; Año: 2008 vol. 25 p. 1790 - 1798

0740-3232

We systematized the study of the effect of glare on reaction time (RT), for visual conditions similar to the ones found during night driving: mesopic range of adaptation
0.14 cd/m2, glare levels of the order of those produced by car headlights (EG=15, 60 lx), suprathreshold luminance contrasts, and a variety of spatial frequencies covering the selected range of visibility (1, 2, 4, and 8 c/deg). We found that, for the no-glare situation, RT increases with decreasing contrast and increasing spatial frequency, which agrees with previous findings. When data are plotted as a function of the inverse of contrast, RT varies linearly, with k?the RT-contrast factor of Pieron?s law?representing the slope of the lines. The effect of glare on RT is increasing the slope ofthese lines. This effect is different for each spatial frequency, which cannot be accounted for in the classic approach considering that glare can be replaced by a single veiling luminance. We show that the effect of glare on RT must be modeled by an equivalent glare luminance that depends on spatial frequency.