Individual differences in metacontrast masking regarding sensitivity and response bias.

In metacontrast masking target visibility is modulated by the time until a masking stimulus appears. The effect of this temporal delay differs across participants in such a way that individual human observers’ performance shows distinguishable types of masking functions which remain largely unchanged for months. Here we examined whether individual differences in masking functions depend on different response criteria in addition to differences in discrimination sensitivity. To this end we reanalyzed previously published data and conducted a new experiment for further data analyses. Our analyses demonstrate that a distinction of masking functions based on the type of masking stimulus is superior to a distinction based on the target–mask congruency. Individually different masking functions are based on individual differences in discrimination sensitivities and in response criteria. Results suggest that individual differences in metacontrast masking result from individually different criterion contents. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

Accession Number: 2012-12735-001. PMID: 22579496 Partial author list: First Author & Affiliation: Albrecht, Thorsten; Georg-Elias-Muller Institute for Psychology, Georg-August University Gottingen, Gottingen, Germany. Release Date: 20120514. Correction Date: 20121126. Publication Type: Journal (0100), Peer Reviewed Journal (0110). Format Covered: Electronic. Document Type: Journal Article. Language: English. Major Descriptor: Consciousness States; Individual Differences; Response Bias; Visual Masking; Visual Perception. Minor Descriptor: Signal Detection (Perception). Classification: Visual Perception (2323). Population: Human (10); Male (30); Female (40). Location: Germany. Age Group: Adulthood (18 yrs & older) (300); Young Adulthood (18-29 yrs) (320); Thirties (30-39 yrs) (340). Methodology: Empirical Study; Interview; Quantitative Study. References Available: Y. Page Count: 10. Issue Publication Date: Sep, 2012. Publication History: First Posted Date: May 10, 2012; First Submitted Date: Nov 26, 2011. Copyright Statement: All rights reserved. Elsevier Inc. 2012.