Spatial-frequency uncertainty and cuing effects on psychometric functions for contrast detection

In the present study, the effects of spatial-frequency uncertainty and cuing on psychometric functions for contrast detection of sinusoidal gratings are examined. For this purpose, psychometric functions were collected from 4 subjects under fixed-frequency, randomized-frequency, and cued-frequency conditions. The experiment was conducted with a temporal two-alternative forced-choice task, and five spatial frequencies in the range of 0.5 and 8.0 c/deg and seven contrast levels for each frequency were used. The results showed that the psychometric functions for the randomized-frequency condition were shallower than those for the fixed-frequency condition, supporting the single-band model for the uncertainty effects (Hubner, 1993a, 1993b). For the cued-frequency condition, the slopes of the functions were not clearly different from those for the randomized condition. These results clearly differ from those of Hubner (1996b), which showed, in the spatial two-alternative forced-choice task, steeper psychometric functions for the randomized-frequency condition than those for the fixed- and cued-frequency conditions, supporting the multiple-band model (Hubner, 1993a, 1993b). The difference suggests that the single-band model applies to the uncertainty effects in the temporal forced-choice task, whereas the multiple-band model does so in the spatial forced-choice task.