[visionlist] Visual search: spatial frequency

[Raymond Dye Jr]

A student has come to me with a potential Master's thesis study examining the question of whether or not the presence of a unique spatial frequency can support a parallel scan of space.  She proposes to present compound gratings of 2, 5, 15 patches (presented in a circular array) in which the target consists of 2, 5, and 12 cycles per degree with distractors consisting of only 2 and 12 c/deg versus a target of 2 and 12 c/degree amongst distractors of 2, 5, and 12 c/d.   She proposes to measure reaction time versus set size in one experiment, then fix the duration at 50 ms and measure d'.  My own background is in spatial hearing, and I am wondering whether of not such an experiment has been conducted in the past.  It seems too obvious for it not to have been done, be we cannot locate it in the literature.

Best regards,
Raymond Dye