This thesis claims that metacontrast unmasking is influenced by attentional orienting towards the
target location. This view is contrary to Breitmeyer, Rudd and Dunn (1981), who proposed that
metacontrast unmasking is the product of inhibition of the primary mask's transient signal by the
sustained signal of a secondary mask. A series of experiments demonstrate the thesis using a task
in which observers discriminated the missing corner of a target diamond. Experiments 1 and 2
replicated metacontrast masking and unmasking, respectively, experiment 3 illustrated that
contour proximity had no influences on unmasking, contrary to dual-channel inhibition theory.
Experiments 4 and 5 indicated that metacontrast unmasking was influenced by spatial orienting.
We propose an addition of attention to dual-channel theory as it is incomplete with regards to
metacontrast unmasking.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/11900 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Lamenza, Ernesto A. |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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