Premium
A noisy transform predicts saccadic and manual reaction times to changes in contrast
Author(s) -
Taylor M. J.,
Carpenter R. H. S.,
Anderson A. J.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
the journal of physiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.802
H-Index - 240
eISSN - 1469-7793
pISSN - 0022-3751
DOI - 10.1113/jphysiol.2006.105387
Subject(s) - saccadic masking , contrast (vision) , logarithm , computer science , stimulus (psychology) , artificial intelligence , pattern recognition (psychology) , mathematics , speech recognition , computer vision , eye movement , psychology , cognitive psychology , mathematical analysis
One of the most important factors affecting the time taken to respond to a visual stimulus is contrast, and studies of reaction time can provide precise, quantitative information about the underlying signal processing. In this study we measured both saccadic and manual reaction times to step increments in target contrast. Our results over a range of initial contrasts are consistent with a simple model consisting of a noisy logarithmic transducer followed by a rise‐to‐threshold accumulator. A systematic comparison with previous contrast‐processing models also shows that the commonly used method of linear regression may not be a particularly sensitive tool in deciding between them. We found similar parameters for the contrast processor in both saccadic and manual reaction times, as might be expected if a common target detection stage precedes each type of reaction.