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This work is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights and duplication or sale of all or part is not permitted, except that material may be duplicated by you for research, private study, criticism/review or educational purposes. Electronic or print copies are for your own personal, non- commercial use and shall not be passed to any other individual. No quotation may be published without proper acknowledgement. For any other use, or to quote extensively from the work, permission must be obtained from the copyright holder/s. AN INVESTIGATION OF SOME FACTORS AFFECTING THE VARIABILITY OF THE MCCOLLOUGH EFFECT 1 by N.J. Lund, B.Sc., Wales Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the University of Keele Department of Communication and Neuroscience 1982 Dedication: To my parents, John and Cynthia Lund ABSTRACT A series of experiments are reported which have attempted to isolate some factors causing inter and intrasubject variability of the McCollough effect.* A number of such factors were found. 1. The initial strength of the OCCA is strongly influenced by sleep duration. Reduction of up to one third of a normal nights sleep caused a marked decrease in the aftereffect strength. Sleep periods of under a third of normal were found to have no further effect. Decay rates were not affected by prior sleep duration. 2. Both the strength and decay of the McCollough effect undergo diurnal changes late in the evening. These changes were linked with the sleep cycle and evidence is presented indicating that the effect of the time of day upon the initial strength may be linked with the effect of sleep duration. 3. Some visual defects result in abnormalities of binocular,' dichoptic and transferred McCollough effects. 4. Different visual stimuli presented after induction cause large variations in the rate of decay of the OCCA. Greatest decay was caused by those stimuli with identical characteristics to those of the induction stimuli. 5. Variation in the visual stimulation presented before induction strongly influences the initial strength of the aftereffect but does not affect subsequent decay rates. Chromatic fields of identical f colours as the induction stimuli, and gratings of orientations of not more than 20 from those of the induction stimuli cause a large reduction in the strength of the OCCA. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The work reported in this thesis has been performed at the Department of Communication and Neuroscience and I am grateful for the use of all its facilities. There are many members of the Department who have helped me over the past few years and I would like to thank all of them. I owe a particular debt to my supervisor, Prof. D.M. MacKay who, despite his own research and administrative duties, was always available to discuss my work and offer invaluable advice. I would also like to thank him for his cheerful guiding and detailed correcting of the writing of this thesis. I am grateful to Dr. V. MacKay for a number of practical suggestions and some long discussions about the McCollough effect. i Like all psychophysical research this thesis could not have been completed without the patient forbearance of the subjects. I would like to thank all of them, particularly Mr. M.J. Musselwhite whose initials adorn practically every figure on the following pages. I am also indebted to him, together with Mr. P. Frost and Dr. R.J. Watt for a number of computer programs. I am grateful to my fellow research students, Salv Gravano, Rosie Snelgar, Paul Frost.and Malcolm Musselwhite for their friendship, .good humour and strange antics. ' Finally I must express my deep appreciation to Sue Dixon for her help and support during the writing of this thesis. Without her help in correcting, typing and in many other ways it may never have been completed. SOME FACTORS AFFECTING THE VARIABILITY OF THE MCCOLLOUGH EFFECT PAGE ABSTRACT ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS CONTENTS: chapter 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Introduction 1 1.2 Phantom fringes 2 ~\ 1.3 The McCollough Effect 3 1.4 Variability of the McCollough Effect 5 chapter 2. PARAMETERS KNOWN TO AFFECT THE PATTERN CONTINGENT . AFTEREFFECTS 2.1 Orientation 6 2.2 Spatial frequency g 2.3 Pattern aftereffects contingent on colour 10 2.4 Luminance and contrast 11 2.5 Hue 13 2.6 Monocularity and binocularity 14 2.7 Retinal specificity 13 » 2.8 Time course of the aftereffects 19 2.9 Further factors affecting the variability Of the McCollough 22 Effect Chapter 3. EQUIPMENT' AND EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES 3.1 Introduction 24 3.2 Induction of the McCollough Effect 24 3.2.1 Tachistoscope 24 3.2.2 Patterns * 27 3.2.3 Colour Filters : 27 3.2. .'4 Luminance 28 3.3 Measurement of the McCollough Effect 28 3.3.1 Apparatus ■* 28 3.3.2 Calibration of the apparatus 31 3.4 Experimental procedure 33 3.4.1 Pre-induction test 35 3.4.2 Induction procedure 36 3.4.3 Post-induction tests 37 3.5 Subjects 38 3.6 Subject reliability 38 3.6.1 Colour match settings 38 3.6.2 Repeatability 39 3.7 Decay curves 39 3.7.1 Comparisons of methods of measurement ! 39 3.7.2 Measurement intervals 43 3.7.3 Red and green decay 44 3.8 Terminology .49 Chapter 4. EXPLORATORY EXPERIMENTS 4.1 Introduction , 50 4.2 Controlled factors 50 4.3 Temporal characteristics of the induction period 52 4.4 Build—up of after cffsct strength . 56 4.5 Monocular- and binocular results 61 4.6 Conclusions 65 Chapter 5. SLEEP AND THE MCCOLLOUGH EFFECT 5.1 Introduction 69 5.2 Changing sleep durations: bedtime variable, induction 70 hour f ixed ' ' 5.2.1 Introductory experiments 70 5.2.2 Subjects with different sleep habits 74 5.2.3 . Further subjects 74 5.2.4 Induction hour in the later afternoon 77 5.2.5 Effects of prior sleep on decay 78 5.2.6 Conclusions 78 * . 5.3 Subject alertness and ability 80 5.3.1 Pre-test variability 81 5.3.2 Contrast.measurement 82 5.3.3 Conclusions 83 5.4 Effects of darkness 84 5.4.1 Patching one eye for 5hrs. before sleep 84 5.4.2 Effects of patching one eye while sleeping 86 5.4.3 Conclusions 87 5.5 Effects of patching in the morning 87 5.6 Bedtime fixed, induction hour variable 89 5.7 Bedtime fixed, induction hour fixed; sleep variable 90 5.8 Bedtime variable, induction hour fixed; 2hr. shift in prior 92 sleep cycle 5.9 Conclusions and discussion 94 Chapter 6. TIME OF DAY AND THE MCCOLLOUGH EFFECT 6.1 Introduction 98 6.2 Variation of OCCA strength throughout the day 98 6.3 Induction in the evening 101 6.3.1 Initial OCCA strength 101 6.3.2 Induction in the evening, shift in sleep period i 103 6.3.3 Decay rates of the OCCA 103 6.4 Effects of eye patching in the evening 106 6.5 Induction late evening after variable sleep the night before 106 6.6 Decay at 12pm after different sleep durations 109 6.7 Conclusions and discussion 109 Chapter 7. VISUAL ABNORMALITIES AND THE MCCOLLOUGH EFFECT 7.1 Introduction 112 7.2 Subject data 113 7.3 Binocular stimulation 114 7.3.1 Initial strength 115 7.3.2. Amblyopia and interocular generalization 115 7.3.3 Decay 118 7.3.4 Conclusions . ! 119 7.4 Monocular stimulation 123 7.4.1 Initial strength 123 7.4.2 Interocular transfer 125 7.4.3 Decay of transferred McCollough Effect 129 7.5 Binocular rivalry ’ 131 7.6 Dichoptic stimulation , 133 7.6.1 Initial strength 134 7.6.2 Decay of dichoptic aftereffects 136 7.7 Conclusions and discussion 136 Chapter 8. EFFECTS OF VISUAL STIMULATION UPON DECAY 8.1 Introduction ' 140 8.2 Monocular experiments 142 8.3 Dichoptic comparisons of thfe effects of visual stimuli 147 8.3.1 Comparison of homogeneous chromatic fields with darkness 148 8.3.2 Comparison of achromatic gratings with darkness 148 8.3.3 Comparison of homogeneous chromatic fields with 151 achromatic gratings 8.3.4 Comparison of homogeneous chromàtic fields with 151 achromatic gratings: alternating gratings 8.3.5 Comparison of darkness with white fields 154 1 8.3.6 Comparison of homogeneous chromatic fields with white 157 fields ' 8.3.7 Comparison of achromatic gratings with white fields 157 8.3.8 Summary of results 157 8.4 Investigations of other chromatic and patterned stimuli upon 160 the decay 8.4.1 Comparison of red-green with blue-orange homogeneous 160 fields 8.4.2 Comparison of left-right oblique with horizontal-vertical 163 achromatic gratings 8.5 Conclusions 166 Chapter 9. EFFECTS OF VISUAL STIMULATION BEFORE INDUCTION 9.1 Introduction 169 9.2 Monocular stimulation 169 9.3 Effects of stimulation prior to induction upon decay 172 9.4 Dichoptic comparisons of the effects of stimulation before 172 induction 9.4.1 Comparison of homogeneous chromatic fields with darkness 174 9.4.2 Comparison of achromatic gratings with darkness 174 9.4.3 Comparison of homogeneous chromatic fields with white 177 fields 9.4.4 Comparison of achromatic gratings with white fields 177 9.4.5 Comparison of white fields with darkness 177 9.4.6 Comparison of achromatic gratings with homogeneous 181 chromatic fields 9.5 Effects of grating orientation 181 9.6 Effects of different colours 187 9.7 Conclusions 188 Chapter 10. GENERAL CONCLUSIONS AND FURTHER RESEARCH 191 BIBLIOGRAPHY 199 APPENDIX A. METHODS OF MEASUREMENT i 211 1 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION Of the many findings of visual psychophysics in recent years some of the most interesting have been the family of aftereffects which are contingent upon one or several parameters of visual stimulation suggesting that some elements (colour, form and motion for instance) are processed together to some extent.