The effect of contrast on sustained detection.

During a 1 min observation, the percentage of time a high spatial frequency grating can be detected is influenced by the contrast and spatial frequency of a second, superimposed and orthogonally-oriented sine wave grating. Increasing contrast of the second pattern aids detection of the first by providing a more effective accommodative stimulus. The function relating spatial frequency and the minimum contrast needed to activate accommodation is similar in shape to the classical contrast sensitivity function. However, an order of magnitude more contrast is required to stabilize accommodation than is required to simply detect a pattern. These results suggest that performance on visual tasks requiring sustained rather than brief detection may be markedly impaired under low contrast conditions.