Abstract
A model of contrast detection is proposed in which the visibility of a low-contrast stimulus is determined by a non-Euclidean magnitude of the vector composed of the responses of a large number of independent channels. Although the vector-magnitude model is quite different from the probability-summation model which has been suggested previously, the contrast thresholds and psychometric functions predicted by the two models can be in agreement within 10% for up to 105 channels in the system. Presently available experimental evidence is insufficient to establish the correctness of either model, but the computational simplicity of the vector-magnitude model makes it interesting, if only as a useful approximation to the probability-summation model.
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Quick, R.F. A vector-magnitude model of contrast detection. Kybernetik 16, 65–67 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00271628
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00271628