The gap effect revisited: slow changes in chromatic sensitivity as affected by luminance and chromatic borders

Abstract

Chromatic discrimination was studied with two half-fields that were either precisely juxtaposed or were separated by a narrow gap. When present, the gap was in some conditions filled with light isoluminant to the test fields. When the fields were juxtaposed, chromatic sensitivity declined with viewing duration. For a discrimination based solely on S cone activity, separating steadily-viewed fields by either a luminance or a purely chromatic gap caused similar enhancements of sensitivity. Neither type of gap had much effect when the fields were flashed. The results may be interpreted as showing that either a luminance or chromatic contour can spatially delimit the two half-fields, thus preventing a slow spatial integration from reducing the discriminability of the two sides of the field.