Orientation discrimination in 5-year-olds and adults tested with luminance-modulated and contrast-modulated gratings

We compared thresholds for discriminating orientation by 5-year-olds and adults for first-order (luminance-modulated) and second-order (contrast-modulated) gratings. To achieve equal visibility, we set the contrast for each age and condition at a fixed multiple of the contrast threshold for discrimi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of vision (Charlottesville, Va.) Va.), 2007-03, Vol.7 (4), p.9-9
Main Authors: Lewis, Terri L, Kingdon, Andrea, Ellemberg, Dave, Maurer, Daphne
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Child, Preschool
Contrast Sensitivity
Discrimination (Psychology) - physiology
Humans
Light
Orientation - physiology
Photic Stimulation - methods
Sensory Thresholds
Visual Perception - physiology
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Summary:We compared thresholds for discriminating orientation by 5-year-olds and adults for first-order (luminance-modulated) and second-order (contrast-modulated) gratings. To achieve equal visibility, we set the contrast for each age and condition at a fixed multiple of the contrast threshold for discriminating horizontal from vertical gratings. The minimum tilt that could be discriminated from vertical was four to five times larger in 5-year-olds than in adults, even when the noise was removed from the first-order stimuli and amplitude modulation increased to 0.90. Thresholds at both ages were significantly worse (1.2-1.5 times worse) for second-order modulation than for equally visible first-order modulation, and 5-year-olds were equally immature for both types of pattern. Together, the findings suggest that orientation discrimination is slow to develop and worse for second-order than first-order patterns in both children and adults.
ISSN:1534-7362
1534-7362
DOI:10.1167/7.4.9