Interactions between achromatic and chromatic mechanisms in visual search

The purpose of this study was to explore the interaction between achromatic information and chromatic information in a visual search task. It is widely accepted that signals in second stage color opponent mechanisms vary with both the luminance and chromaticity of a stimulus. However, detection experiments suggest a large degree of independence between chromatic thresholds and achromatic thresholds. The independence at threshold has led to the proposal of a third processing stage in which achromatic and chromatic information is separated. Experiments were designed to determine if variability in the luminance of distractor stimuli made it more difficult to search for a target that differed in chromaticity. When the chromaticity of the distractors was held constant variability in distractor luminance had little effect on search performance, but when signals in second stage color opponent mechanisms were held constant variability in distractor luminance resulted in poorer performance. The results suggest that search for chromatic targets is mediated by a processing stage that calculates the ratio of chromatic and achromatic signals so that the chromatic signal is independent of stimulus luminance.