Abstract
The present studies investigated whether an isoluminant color change pops out, indicating that it can be detected preattentively in parallel. The results of Experiment 1 show that an abrupt color change presented on an equiluminant background does not pop out. However, when the color change is accompanied by a small luminance change, it does pop out. The results of Experiment 2 show that the pop-out is fully due to the luminance change and not to the color change. The results of Experiments 3 and 4 show that the failure to find a pop-out at equiluminance cannot be attributed to the limited temporal resolution for chromatic stimuli. The results of Experiment 5 show that particular search strategies cannot be responsible for the obtained results. The results are in agreement with physiological findings regarding the parvo and magno systems.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Breitmeyer, B. C., &Ganz, L. (1976). Implications of sustained and transient channels for theories of visual pattern masking, saccadic suppression, and information processing.Psychological Review,83, 1–36.
Cavanagh, P., Tyler, C. W., &Favreau, O. E. (1984). Perceived velocity of moving chromatic gratings.Journal of the Optical Society of America,8, 893–899.
Folk, C. L., Remington, R., &Johnston, J. C. (1992). Involuntary covert orienting is contingent on attentional control settings.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,18, 1030–1044.
Ives, H. E. (1912). Studies of the photometry of different colours: I. Spectral luminosity curves obtained by equality of brightness photometer and the flicker photometer under similar conditions.Philosophical Magazine,24, 149–188.
Kelly, D. H. (1983). Spatiotemporal variation of chromatic and achromatic contrast thresholds.Journal of the Optical Society of America,73, 742–750.
Livingstone, M., &Hubel, D. (1988). Segregation of form, color, movement, and depth: Anatomy, physiology, and perception.Science,240, 740–749.
Lüschow, A., &Nothdurft, H. C. (1992). Pop-out of orientation but no pop-out of motion at isoluminance.Vision Research,33, 91–104.
Müller, H. J., &Rabbitt, P. M. A. (1989). Reflexive and voluntary orienting of attention: Time course of activation and resistance to interruption.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,15, 315–330.
Theeuwes, J. (1990). Perceptual selectivity is task-dependent: Evidence from selective search.Acta Psychologica,74, 81–99.
Theeuwes, J. (1991a). Cross-dimensional perceptual selectivity.Perception & Psychophysics,50, 184–193.
Theeuwes, J. (1991b). Exogenous and endogenous control of attention: The effect of visual onsets and offsets.Perception & Psychophysics,49, 83–90.
Theeuwes, J. (1992). Perceptual selectivity for color and form.Perception & Psychophysics,51, 599–606.
Theeuwes, J. (1994). Stimulus-driven capture and attentional set: Selective search for color and visual abrupt onset.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,20, 799–806.
Theeuwes, J., &Lucassen, M. P. (1993). An adaptation-induced pop-out in visual search.Vision Research,16, 2353–2357.
Todd, J. T., &Van Gelder, P. (1979). Implications of a sustained—transient dichotomy for the measurement of human performance.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,5, 625–638.
Treisman, A. M., &Gelade, G. (1980). A feature integration theory of attention.Cognitive Psychology,12, 97–136.
Treisman, A. M., &Gormican, S. (1988). Feature search in early vision: Evidence from search asymmetries.Psychological Review,95, 15–48.
Treisman, A. M., &Souther, J. (1985). Search asymmetry: A diagnostic for preattentive processing of separable features.Journal of Experimental Psychology: General,114, 285–310.
Yantis, S., &Hillstrom, A. P. (1994). Stimulus-driven attentional capture: Evidence from equiluminant visual objects.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,20, 95–108.
Yantis, S., &Jonides, J. (1984). Abrupt visual onsets and selective attention: Evidence from selective search.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,10, 601–621.
Yantis, S., &Jonides, J. (1990). Abrupt visual onsets and selective attention: Voluntary versus automatic allocation.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,16, 121–134.
Zeki, S., &Shipp, S. (1988). The functional logic of cortical connections.Nature,355, 311–317.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Theeuwes, J. Abrupt luminance change pops out; abrupt color change does not. Perception & Psychophysics 57, 637–644 (1995). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03213269
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03213269