Effect of stimulus width on simultaneous contrast

Abstract

Perceived brightness of a stimulus depends on the background against which the stimulus is set, a phenomenon known as simultaneous contrast. For instance, the same gray stimulus can look light against a black background or dark against a white background. Here we quantified the perceptual strength of simultaneous contrast as a function of stimulus width. Previous studies have reported that wider stimuli result in weaker simultaneous contrast, whereas narrower stimuli result in stronger simultaneous contrast. However, no previous research has quantified this relationship. Our results show a logarithmic relationship between stimulus width and perceived brightness. This relationship is well matched by the normalized output of a Difference-of-Gaussians (DOG) filter applied to stimuli of varied widths.