On the physiological basis of masking with dotted visual noise1

In this paper, consideration is given to the physiological foundations of visual masking with successive stimuli. Three experiments are performed with dot patterns. The results indicate that none of the classic characteristics of lateral inhibitory interaction are obtained with this type of stimulus material. A rather informal demonstration is then described that suggests further that lateral inhibitory interaction may also not be a satisfactory explanation of metacontrast and other kinds of masking that use continuous figures.