The effect of dark and equiluminant occlusion on the interocular transfer of visual aftereffects

• Published in: Vision research (Oxford) Vol. 36; no. 5; pp. 707 - 715
• Main Authors: Timney, B., Symons, L.A., Wilcox, L.M., O'Shea, R.P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 1996; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Adaptation, Ocular; Aftereffects; Analysis of Variance; Biological and medical sciences; Contrast threshold elevation; Eye Movements; Figural Aftereffect - physiology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Interocular transfer; Motion; Motion Perception; Perception; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Tilt; Vision; Aftereffects; Motion; Contrast threshold elevation; Tilt; Interocular transfer; After effect; Human; Stimulus movement; Differential threshold; Perception threshold; Visual field; Psychophysics; Experimental study; Luminance; Visual stimulus; Vision; Detection threshold; Perception; Contrast threshold
• ISSN: 0042-6989; 1878-5646
• DOI: 10.1016/0042-6989(95)00156-5

Lehmkuhle and Fox [(1976)
Vision Research, 16, 428–430] reported that interocular transfer (IOT) of a translational motion aftereffect (MAE) was greater if the non-adapting eye viewed an equiluminant field than if it viewed a dark field. They recommended equiluminant occlusion of the non-adapted eye when measuring IOT of aftereffects. We tested this proposal in three experiments. First, we assessed IOT with equiluminant and dark occlusion for three different classes of aftereffects. Although transfer was greater with equiluminant occlusion for the translational MAE, there was no significant difference in the amount of transfer for the tilt aftereffect or the contrast threshold elevation effect. Second, we tested the hypothesis that spuriously large IOT could be the result of an aftereffect from tracking eye movements in the non-adapting eye. When potential tracking movements were reduced by using rotating spokes, a rotating spiral or contracting concentric circles, there was a corresponding reduction in the occlusion-dependent transfer. Third, we found that luminance shifts had no influence on the amount of transfer when all contours were eliminated from the non-adapting eye. We conclude that the type of occlusion used for measuring IOT of the translational MAE is important only when visible contours in the non-adapting eye contribute to the adapting process.