Psychophysical aspects of contrast sensitivity

Abstract

This paper reviews the psychophysical aspects of contrast sensitivity which concerns components of visual stimuli and the behavioural responses and methods used in contrast sensitivity testing. Some discussion is included of the different types of contrast sensitivity charts available as well as a brief background on the different types of graphical representations of contrast sensitivity and contrast visual acuities. Two illustrations alsodemonstrate stereo-pair representation of contrast visual acuities in the context of diabetic eyes. The doctoral research of the first author (AYS) that applies similar idea to understanding both inter- and intra-ocular variation of contrast visual acuities.

Keywords

• contrast
• contrast sensitivity
• contrast visual acuity
• vision science
• vision psychophysics
• stereo-pair scatter plots
• multivariate statistics