Effect of luminance contrast on the motion aftereffect

The effects of luminance contrast and spatial frequency on the motion aftereffect were investigated. The point of subjective equality for velocity was measured as an index of the motion aftereffect. The largest effect was observed when a low contrast grating (5%) was presented as a test stimulus after adaptation to a high contrast grating (100%) in the low spatial frequency condition (0.8 cycle deg.-1). On the whole, the effect increased with increasing adapting contrast and with decreasing test contrast or spatial frequency. Small effects were observed at high test contrasts. These results were inconsistent with those of Keck, Palella, and Pantle in 1976. Analysis showed that there was no saturation on velocity of the motion aftereffect above 5% of the contrast although Keck, et al. (1976) found that the incremental increases of the effect above 3% adapting contrast were small.