scholarly journals The effect of blue light filtering lenses on speed perception

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adiba Ali ◽  
Maitreyee Roy ◽  
Hind Saeed Alzahrani ◽  
Sieu K. Khuu

AbstractBlue-light filtering lenses (BFLs) are marketed to protect the eyes from blue light that may be hazardous to the visual system. Because BFLs attenuate light, they reduce object contrast, which may impact visual behaviours such as the perception of object speed which reduces with contrast. In the present study, we investigated whether speed perception is affected by BFLs. Using a two-interval forced-choice procedure in conjunction with Method of Constant Stimuli, participants (n = 20) judged whether the perceived speed of a moving test stimulus (1.5–4.5°/s) viewed through a BFL was faster than a reference stimulus (2.75°/s) viewed through a clear lens. This procedure was repeated for 3 different BFL brands and chromatic and achromatic stimuli. Psychometric function fits provided an estimate of the speed at which both test and reference stimuli were matched. We find that the perceived speed of both chromatic and achromatic test stimuli was reduced by 6 to 20% when viewed through BFLs, and lenses that attenuated the most blue-light produced the largest reductions in perceived speed. Our findings indicate that BFLs whilst may reduce exposure to hazardous blue light, have unintended consequences to important visual behaviours such as motion perception.

Perception ◽  
10.1068/p5933 ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 37 (12) ◽  
pp. 1783-1789 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kiyoshi Fujimoto ◽  
Akihiro Yagi

When a movie presents a person walking, the background appears to move in the direction opposite to the person's gait. This study verified this backscroll illusion by presenting a point-light walker against a background of a random-dot cinematogram (RDC). The RDC consisted of some signal dots moving coherently either leftward or rightward among other noise dots moving randomly. The method of constant stimuli was used to vary the RDC in motion coherence from trial to trial by manipulating the direction and percentage of the signal dots. Six observers judged the perceived direction of coherent motion in a two-alternative forced-choice procedure. Response rates for coherent motion perception in the direction opposite to walking were evaluated as a function of motion coherence. The results showed that the psychometric function shifted toward the direction determined by a bias in the opposite direction to the walker. The mean threshold was about half as high as that in a control condition in which the positions of the point-lights were scrambled to impair the recognition of the walker. The results demonstrate that biological motion noticeably affects the appearance of motion coherence in the background.


i-Perception ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 204166951770797
Author(s):  
Hiroshi Ashida ◽  
Alan Ho ◽  
Akiyoshi Kitaoka ◽  
Stuart Anstis

The perceived speed of a ring of equally spaced dots moving around a circular path appears faster as the number of dots increases (Ho & Anstis, 2013, Best Illusion of the Year contest). We measured this “spinner” effect with radial sinusoidal gratings, using a 2AFC procedure where participants selected the faster one between two briefly presented gratings of different spatial frequencies (SFs) rotating at various angular speeds. Compared with the reference stimulus with 4 c/rev (0.64 c/rad), participants consistently overestimated the angular speed for test stimuli of higher radial SFs but underestimated that for a test stimulus of lower radial SFs. The spinner effect increased in magnitude but saturated rapidly as the test radial SF increased. Similar effects were observed with translating linear sinusoidal gratings of different SFs. Our results support the idea that human speed perception is biased by temporal frequency, which physically goes up as SF increases when the speed is held constant. Hence, the more dots or lines, the greater the perceived speed when they are moving coherently in a defined area.


Perception ◽  
10.1068/p5845 ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 36 (10) ◽  
pp. 1465-1475 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank H Durgin ◽  
Krista Gigone

We tested the hypothesis that long-term adaptation to the normal contingencies between walking and its multisensory consequences (including optic flow) leads to enhanced discrimination of appropriate visual speeds during self-motion. In experiments 1 (task 1) and 2 a two-interval forced-choice procedure was used to compare the perceived speed of a simulated visual flow field viewed while walking with the perceived speed of a flow field viewed while standing. Both experiments demonstrated subtractive reductions in apparent speed. In experiments 1 and 3 discrimination thresholds were measured for optic flow speed while walking and while standing. Consistent with the optimal-coding hypothesis, speed discrimination for visual speeds near walking speed was enhanced during walking. Reduced sensitivity was found for slower visual speeds. The multisensory context of walking alters the coding of optic flow in a way that enhances speed discrimination in the expected range of flow speeds.


2021 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 233121652110101
Author(s):  
Dmitry I. Nechaev ◽  
Olga N. Milekhina ◽  
Marina S. Tomozova ◽  
Alexander Y. Supin

The goal of the study was to investigate the role of combination products in the higher ripple-density resolution estimates obtained by discrimination between a spectrally rippled and a nonrippled noise signal than that obtained by discrimination between two rippled signals. To attain this goal, a noise band was used to mask the frequency band of expected low-frequency combination products. A three-alternative forced-choice procedure with adaptive ripple-density variation was used. The mean background (unmasked) ripple-density resolution was 9.8 ripples/oct for rippled reference signals and 21.8 ripples/oct for nonrippled reference signals. Low-frequency maskers reduced the ripple-density resolution. For masker levels from −10 to 10 dB re. signal, the ripple-density resolution for nonrippled reference signals was approximately twice as high as that for rippled reference signals. At a masker level as high as 20 dB re. signal, the ripple-density resolution decreased in both discrimination tasks. This result leads to the conclusion that low-frequency combination products are not responsible for the task-dependent difference in ripple-density resolution estimates.


1994 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 662-670 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter J. Fitzgibbons ◽  
Sandra Gordon-Salant

This study examined auditory temporal sensitivity in young adult and elderly listeners using psychophysical tasks that measured duration discrimination. Listeners in the experiments were divided into groups of young and elderly subjects with normal hearing sensitivity and with mild-to-moderate sloping sensorineural hearing loss. Temporal thresholds in all tasks were measured with an adaptive forced-choice procedure using tonal stimuli centered at 500 Hz and 4000 Hz. Difference limens for duration were measured for tone bursts (250 msec reference duration) and for silent intervals between tone bursts (250 msec and 6.4 msec reference durations). Results showed that the elderly listeners exhibited diminished duration discrimination for both tones and silent intervals when the reference duration was 250 msec. Hearing loss did not affect these results. Discrimination of the brief temporal gap (6.4 msec) was influenced by age and hearing loss, but these effects were not consistent across all listeners. Effects of stimulus frequency were not evident for most of the duration discrimination conditions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (10) ◽  
pp. 1685-1693 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth A Perkins ◽  
Joshua L Karelitz

Abstract Introduction A method to assess acute reinforcement due to nicotine may aid identification of doses needed to maintain dependence. After describing development of a forced-choice procedure, results are presented from two studies using it to determine the relative reinforcing effects of nicotine dose per se. Aims and Methods Choice between a higher versus a very low or no nicotine option, via smoking (Study 1, n = 59) and via nasal spray (Study 2, n = 42), was assessed in nontreatment-seeking dependent smokers abstinent overnight. Using a within-subject design, different nicotine levels for each product were administered under blind conditions, initially to assess their discriminability (Study 1: 1.3–17 mg/g each vs. 0.4 mg/g nicotine Spectrum cigarettes; Study 2: 2.5 µg/kg vs. 0 µg/kg nicotine per spray). At the end of sessions for each study, participants engaged in forced-choice trials to assess preference, requiring a fixed number of puffs/sprays for one and/or the other. Results Confirming the procedure’s validity, the choice of the higher nicotine option was significantly greater than that for the very low or no nicotine option in both studies. In Study 1, choice relative to 0.4 mg/g was greater for cigarettes 5.3 mg/g or more but not 2.3 mg/g or less (p = .003 for the interaction of higher content vs. 0.4 mg/g comparison). In Study 2, choice was greater for the nicotine versus placebo spray (p < .005), as nicotine was preferred nearly twice as much as the placebo. Conclusion This forced-choice procedure may efficiently determine the relative reinforcing value of a nicotine dose per se. Implications The forced-choice procedure described here may identify nicotine doses that are acutely reinforcing in dependent smokers. A priori research of choice comparisons between small versus zero nicotine doses could inform clinical research in larger and more diverse samples to determine nicotine contents in cigarettes, and perhaps in other commercial products, that are not reinforcing and, thus, likely to reduce the risk of their addictiveness. This procedure may also be applicable to assessing changes in acute nicotine reinforcement due to different product formulations, novel drugs, or other manipulations, perhaps helping inform development of new interventions for cessation or harm reduction.


2003 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 366-374 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Meerum Terwogt ◽  
Hedy Stegge ◽  
Carolien Rieffe

Four-, 6-, and 10-year-old children were tested in a forced-choice procedure about their beliefs on the inheritance of physical characteristics. They were presented with pictures of two biological parents, and then asked to select the most likely descendant out of three alternatives: a father look-alike, a mother look-alike, and an alternative representing the combined influence of both parents. In several question pairs, additional information was given about the parent–child relationship that was clearly irrelevant to the principles of heredity to examine the extent to which domain confusions were likely to occur. The majority of the 10-year-olds consistently preferred the alternative in which the combined influence of both parents was shown and domain confusions hardly ever occurred. Four- and 6-year-olds, in contrast, were still influenced by information from alien domains, although even their reasoning about inheritance seemed to be theory-like. Overall, the results suggest that with age, children develop a more restricted and better-defined conception of the principles of heredity, in which the combined influence of both parents is acknowledged.


Perception ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 25 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 16-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
C Bonnet ◽  
J P Thomas ◽  
P Fagerholm

We have examined the relationship between the reaction time for detecting a sinusoidal grating stimulus and the stimulus variables of spatial frequency, contrast, window size, and uncertainty with respect to spatial frequency. Detection was measured in a two-alternative spatial-forced-choice procedure. The stimuli were horizontal cosine gratings windowed spatially by two-dimensional Gaussians. Spatial frequency was varied from 0.7 to 6.5 cycles deg−1 and contrast was varied from 0.054 to 0.673. The standard deviation of the Gaussian window was fixed in some conditions and the number of cycles presented in each window covaried with spatial frequency. In other conditions, window size was varied, along the vertical axis only, to hold the number of cycles constant. Contrasts were always randomly intermixed, but frequencies were intermixed in some conditions and blocked in others. We confirm previous findings that reaction time increases as spatial frequency increases and decreases as contrast increases. We also confirm and extend the proposal of Rudd that reaction time closely approximates a single function of the product of contrast and the square of the grating period. We consider the implications of these findings for the nature of the physiological mechanisms which govern reaction time.


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