Visual localization was studied by flashing small stimuli on a green background and requiring observers to press keys to indicate whether the stimulus appeared to the left or right of fixation. The results suggest that, for small (0.25 deg) briefly flashed (17 ms) stimuli at an eccentric location (10 deg), color contrast is not useable and localization presumably must rely on the magnocellular pathway. When stimulus size and duration were increased at 10-deg eccentricity, isochromatic stimuli could be localized at less than 10% luminance contrast (again suggesting use of the magnocellular high sensitivity luminance-contrast system), but isoluminant color-contrast stimuli could also be localized (suggesting use of the color-contrast sensitive parvocellular system). Thus, the results indicate that, dependent on stimulus conditions, both magnocellular and parvocellular pathways were utilized by normal observers in this localization task.

Intense scrutiny has been focused on whether chromatic stimuli contribute to motion perception. The present study considers a related but different question: how does motion affect chromatic detection? Detection thresholds were measured for a disk that underwent a brief (13.3 ms) chromatic change in the L/(L+M) chromatic direction. The disk's presentation sequence and speed (0–16 deg/s) were manipulated. In the coherent presentation sequence, the disk moved smoothly along a circular path centered on the fixation point. In the random presentation sequence, the disk appeared randomly at positions along the circular path. In both types of sequences, the disk underwent a brief chromatic change midway through the temporal presentation sequence. Threshold was elevated in the coherent condition compared to the random condition, and threshold decreased with an increase in speed. The threshold elevation observed in the coherent presentation sequence can be accounted for by temporal integration. The decrease in threshold with an increase in speed can be accounted for by spatial integration. The results, therefore, can be explained by spatiotemporal integration, without invoking a neural mechanism specialized for motion.

The peripheral visual field is marked by a deterioration in color sensitivity, sometimes attributed to the random wiring of midget bipolar cells to cone photoreceptors in the peripheral retina (Mullen, 1991; Mullen & Kingdom, 1996). Using psychophysical methods, we explored differences in the sensitivity of peripheral color mechanisms with detection and discrimination of 2-deg spots at 18-deg eccentricity, and find evidence for a postreceptoral locus for the observed loss in sensitivity. As shown before, observers' sensitivity to green was lower than to red in the periphery, although the magnitude of this effect differed across observers. These results suggest that the asymmetry in peripheral sensitivity occurs at a postreceptoral site, possibly a cortical one. In addition, noise masking was used to determine the cone inputs to the peripheral color mechanisms. The masked detection contours indicate that the red and green mechanisms in the periphery respond to the linear difference of approximately equally weighted L- and M-cone contrasts, just as they do in the fovea. Thus, if the midget retinal ganglion system is responsible for red/green color perception in the fovea, it is likely to be responsible at 18-deg eccentricity as well.