A STUDY OF THE EFFECT OF PATTERN ON THE DETECTION OF DETAIL AT DIFFERENT LEVELS OF ILLUMINATION*.

Experiments are described which were intended to test the hypothesis that the satisfactory illumination for detecting small detail of given characteristics exhibited in a simply-patterned test-object is equally satisfactory for detecting similar detail embedded in a complexly-patterned object. Adult subjects between the ages of 18 and 32 years were used. The results obtained show marked effects of practice and little variation with illumination within the ranga 10 to 300 lm/ft2. The results are not inconsistent with the stated hypothesis. A complete series of tests was performed by one subject aged 67 years: comparison is made between his results and those of the younger subjects. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]