Color Can Shorten Breakthrough Times in Continuous Flash Suppression through Increased Salience and Task Relevance
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Goettingen, 37073 Goettingen, Germany
Vision 2021, 5(1), 13; https://doi.org/10.3390/vision5010013
Received: 15 January 2021
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Revised: 9 March 2021
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Accepted: 11 March 2021
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Published: 16 March 2021
Color can enhance the perception of relevant stimuli by increasing their salience and guiding visual search towards stimuli that match a task-relevant color. Using Continuous Flash Suppression (CFS), the current study investigated whether color facilitates the discrimination of targets that are difficult to perceive due to interocular suppression. Gabor patterns of two or four cycles per degree (cpd) were shown as targets to the non-dominant eye of human participants. CFS masks were presented at a rate of 10 Hz to the dominant eye, and participants had the task to report the target’s orientation as soon as they could discriminate it. The 2-cpd targets were robustly suppressed and resulted in much longer response times compared to 4-cpd targets. Moreover, only for 2-cpd targets, two color-related effects were evident. First, in trials where targets and CFS masks had different colors, targets were reported faster than in trials where targets and CFS masks had the same color. Second, targets with a known color, either cyan or yellow, were reported earlier than targets whose color was randomly cyan or yellow. The results suggest that the targets’ entry to consciousness may have been speeded by color-mediated effects relating to increased (bottom-up) salience and (top-down) task relevance.
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Keywords:
interocular suppression; consciousness; color vision; visual search; attentional templates; early visual system; awareness; continuous flash suppression; binocular rivalry
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MDPI and ACS Style
Valuch, C. Color Can Shorten Breakthrough Times in Continuous Flash Suppression through Increased Salience and Task Relevance. Vision 2021, 5, 13. https://doi.org/10.3390/vision5010013
AMA Style
Valuch C. Color Can Shorten Breakthrough Times in Continuous Flash Suppression through Increased Salience and Task Relevance. Vision. 2021; 5(1):13. https://doi.org/10.3390/vision5010013
Chicago/Turabian StyleValuch, Christian. 2021. "Color Can Shorten Breakthrough Times in Continuous Flash Suppression through Increased Salience and Task Relevance" Vision 5, no. 1: 13. https://doi.org/10.3390/vision5010013
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