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. 2014 Sep 17;5:975. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00975

Figure 1.

Figure 1

(A) Feature fusion. A right or left vernier (V) is followed by a second vernier with an opposite offset direction (anti-vernier, AV). Only one vernier with an almost aligned offset is perceived. Observers cannot tell whether the first or second vernier is offset to the right. Hence, the verniers themselves are unconscious (direct measure of awareness). (B) When the second vernier is flanked by 12 copies of itself on each side, temporal feature fusion almost completes ceases. The first vernier becomes visible as an element in its own right, appearing to be superimposed on the grating of 25 anti-verniers. (C) To give quantitative expression, we determined vernier dominance. In each trial, we determined whether the response of the observers matched the offset direction of the first vernier. Hence, a 100% score means that observers pushed always the button according to the first vernier. A 0% score means observers decided always according to the second vernier, and for 50% both verniers contributed equally on average. Performance is at ceiling for a single vernier (V). Adding the anti-vernier leads to anti-vernier dominance (in accordance with the fact that in fusion, the latter element dominates). When there are 2*12 copies of the second vernier, the first vernier becomes visible and performance is almost as good as for the single vernier (V-25AV; only 2*6 verniers are shown here). Locally, at the center, the very same first and second vernier are presented as in the previous conditions. Performance is roughly independent of whether or not these verniers are offset or aligned indicating again that there is no temporal fusion (V-AV24N). We argue that spatial integration trumps temporal fusion. Visibility of the first vernier depends on grouping and not on low level limitations. Data from Hermens et al. (2009). (D) Bloch's law for 3-vernier sequences. Doubling the luminance of the anti-vernier has the same effect as doubling its duration (doubled luminances are indicated by bold font). Data from Scharnowski et al. (2007a).