Study of crowding effect for stimuli of low contrast and large size in the centre of vision field

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Abstract

We present the results of psychophysical studies on the effect of additional images (distractors) for identification of test stimuli presented at the center of the visual field. As a test we used low contrast Landolt rings with size 1.1; 1.5 or 2.2 degre es. Distractors were Landolt rings or rings without discontinuities of the same size. Distractor would appear to the right or left of the ring in the region of 1 to 2 between the centers of the diameters of the test images. The task of the observer was in distinguishing the orientation of test Landolt rings. It is shown that the presentation of the same shape distractor degrades test recognition at a distance of up to 1,8 diameter of the Landolt test rings, which exceeds the interaction areas defined previously in the studies of the of crowding effect. Distractor in the form of a ring without gap degrades the perception on a minimum distance, in contact with the test. Errors in distinction of orientation of test Landolt rings were not accidental: observers have often pointed out the orientation of the distractor. The possible impact of integration features of images and attention on the outcome of experiments factor is discussed.

General Information

Keywords: recognition, crowding-effect, Landolt C, critical spacing, futures integration, attention

Journal rubric: Psychology of Perception

Article type: scientific article

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/exppsy.2015080202

For citation: Bondarko V.M., Danilova M.V., Solnushkin S.D., Chikhman V.N. Study of crowding effect for stimuli of low contrast and large size in the centre of vision field. Eksperimental'naâ psihologiâ = Experimental Psychology (Russia), 2015. Vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 5–20. DOI: 10.17759/exppsy.2015080202. (In Russ., аbstr. in Engl.)

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Information About the Authors

Valeria M. Bondarko, Doctor of Biology, Leading Research Associate, Laboratory of physiology of vision, Pavlov Institute of Physiology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St.Petersburg, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7408-302X, e-mail: vmbond@gmail.com

Marina V. Danilova, PhD in Biology, Leading Researcher, Laboratory of physiology of vision, Pavlov Institute of Physiology, St.Petersburg, Russia, e-mail: mar.danilova@gmail.com

Sergei D. Solnushkin, Senior Research Associate, Laboratory of Informational Technologies and Mathematical Modeling, Pavlov Institute of Physiology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St.Petersburg, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4009-6716, e-mail: solnushkin@list.ru

Valerii N. Chikhman, PhD in Engineering, Senior Research Associate, Head of Laboratory of Informational Technologies and Mathematical Modeling, Pavlov Psychological Institute of Russian Academy of Science, St.Petersburg, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4955-4608, e-mail: v_c_pavlinst@mail.ru

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