Abstract
The present results replicate earlier data showing decreased susceptibility to backward masking of disk-shaped targets with increasing numbers of internal black-white segments. Two trends appearing in the earlier study were also investigated: (1) the elevated threshold of a 16-segmented target under a no-masking condition; (2) the facilitation of that target’s detectability under a masking condition. Both trends reoccurred in the present data, but only the first was statistically reliable. The results suggest that visual targets with many internal contours in close proximity may generate inhibition as well as excitation, and that for such targets a masking stimulus may serve both to disinhibit and to inhibit target detection.
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Supported by Grant No. EY 00481-05 from the National Eye Institute. Thanks to Sue I. Cox for advice and technical assistance.
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Ellis, D., Dember, W.N. Backward masking of visual targets with internal contours: A replication. Psychon Sci 22, 91–92 (1971). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03332509
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03332509