Contrast discrimination with sinusoidal gratings of different spatial frequency

The detectability of contrast increments was measured as a function of the contrast of a masking or "pedestal" grating at a number of different spatial frequencies ranging from 2 to 16 cycles per degree of visual angle. The pedestal grating always had the same orientation, spatial frequency, and phase as the signal. The shape of the contrast-increment threshold versus pedestal contrast (TvC) functions depends on the performance level used to define the "threshold," but when both axes are normalized by the contrast corresponding to 75% correct detection at each frequency, the TvC functions at a given performance level are identical. Confidence intervals on the slope of the rising part of the TvC functions are so wide that it is not possible with our data to reject Weber's law. (C) 2002 Optical Society of America.