Color scrambles reveal red and green half-wave linear mechanisms plus a mechanism selective for low chromatic contrast

Abstract

This paper introduces a new method to determine how subjects make discriminations among red-green texture stimuli. More specifically, the method determines (1) the number of mechanisms in human vision sensitive to lights that vary along the constant-S cardinal axis (cSCA) of DKL space and (2) the sensitivity of each mechanism to cSCA lights. Each of five subjects was tested in four, separately-blocked tasks. In each task, the subject strove to detect the location of a patch of cSCA-scramble (a spatially random mixture of cSCA lights) in a large, annular background of cSCA-scramble with a different histogram. In different tasks the target patch was (1) redder, (2) greener, (3) higher in red-green contrast, and (4) lower in red-green contrast than the background. For each subject in each task, we measure how target salience is influenced by different cSCA lights. By assuming that in each task each subject uses a weighted sum of his-or-her available mechanisms to construct a “tool” that is optimal for detecting the target, we can derive the sensitivity functions of the mechanisms underlying performance. Results suggest that human vision possesses three mechanisms sensitive to cSCA lights: a red half-wave linear mechanism, a complementary green half-wave linear mechanism, and a third mechanism that is activated by color-scrambles with low chromatic contrast in high-chromatic–contrast backgrounds.