Abstract

This work extends experiments by Rolland¹ and uses the theoretical framework of Myers et al.² The observer task was detection of a flat-top disk signal in white noise added to a statistically defined, spatially varying background produced using low-pass filtered white noise. Six backgrounds were produced using thee Gaussian filter standard deviations and two spectral densities per filter. Two experimental methods were used; 2AFC detection with signal known exactly and MAFC location uncertainty (M = 8,32,98). Human efficiency was compared to that of a Hotelling trace observer normalized to have the same efficiency (50%) as humans for a uniform background. The agreement between human performance and the Hotelling trace model was fairly good.

© 1992 Optical Society of America