Critical Illumination and Critical Frequency for Response to Flickered Light, in Dragonfly Larvae

Curves relating flicker frequency (F) to mean critical illumination (I(m)) for threshold response to flickered light, with equal durations of light and no light intervals, and relating illumination (I) to mean critical flicker frequency (F(m)) for the same response, have been obtained from homogeneous data based upon the reactions of dragonfly larvae (Anax junius). These curves exhibit the properties already described in the case of the fish Lepomis. The curve for F(m) lies above the curve of I(m) by an amount which, as a function of I, can be predicted from a knowledge either of the variation of I(m) or of F(m). The law of the observable connection between F and I is properly expressed as a band, not as a simple curve. The variation of I(m) (and of F(m)) is not due to "experimental error," but is an expression of the variable character of the organism's capacity to exhibit the reaction which is the basis of the measurements. As in other series of measurements, P.E.(I) is a rectilinear function of I(m); P.E.(F) passes through a maximum as F (or I) increases. The form of P.E.(F) as a function of I can be predicted from the measurements of P.E.(I). It is pointed out that the equations which have been proposed for the interpretation of curves of critical flicker frequency as a function of intensity, based upon the balance of light adaptation and dark adaptation, have in fact the character of "population curves;" and that their contained constants do not have the properties requisite for the consistent application of the view that the shape of the F - I curve is governed by the steady state condition of adaptation. These curves can, however, be understood as resulting from the achievement of a certain level of difference between the average effect of a light flash and its average after effect during the dark interval.