scholarly journals A Brücke–Bartley effect for contrast

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (8) ◽  
pp. 180171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua A. Solomon ◽  
Christopher W. Tyler

Accurate derivation of the psychophysical (a.k.a. transducer) function from just-notable differences requires accurate knowledge of the relationship between the mean and variance of apparent intensities. Alternatively, a psychophysical function can be derived from estimates of the average between easily discriminable intensities. Such estimates are unlikely to be biased by the aforementioned variance, but they are notoriously variable and may stem from decisional processes that are more cognitive than sensory. In this paper, to minimize cognitive pollution, we used amplitude-modulated contrast. As the spatial or temporal (carrier) frequency increased, estimates of average intensity became less variable across observers, converging on values that were closer to mean power (i.e. contrast 2 ) than mean contrast. Simply put, apparent contrast increases when physical contrast flickers. This result is analogous to Brücke's finding that brightness increases when luminance flickers. It implies an expansive transduction of contrast in the same way that Brücke's finding implies an expansive transduction of luminance.

Genetics ◽  
1981 ◽  
Vol 98 (2) ◽  
pp. 441-459 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takeo Maruyama ◽  
Masatoshi Nei

ABSTRACT Mathematical properties of the overdominance model with mutation and random genetic drift are studied by using the method of stochastic differential equations (Itô and McKean 1974). It is shown that overdominant selection is very powerful in increasing the mean heterozygosity as compared with neutral mutations, and if 2Ns (N = effective population size; s = selective disadvantage for homozygotes) is larger than 10, a very low mutation rate is sufficient to explain the observed level of allozyme polymorphism. The distribution of heterozygosity for overdominant genes is considerably different from that of neutral mutations, and if the ratio of selection coefficient (s) to mutation rate (ν) is large and the mean heterozygosity (h) is lower than 0.2, single-locus heterozygosity is either approximately 0 or 0.5. If h increases further, however, heterozygosity shows a multiple-peak distribution. Reflecting this type of distribution, the relationship between the mean and variance of heterozygosity is considerably different from that for neutral genes. When s/v is large, the proportion of polymorphic loci increases approximately linearly with mean heterozygosity. The distribution of allele frequencies is also drastically different from that of neutral genes, and generally shows a peak at the intermediate gene frequency. Implications of these results on the maintenance of allozyme polymorphism are discussed.


1990 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naomi R. Wray ◽  
Robin Thompson

SummaryA method is presented for the prediction of rate of inbreeding for populations with discrete generations. The matrix of Wright's numerator relationships is partitioned into ‘contribution’ matrices which describe the contribution of the Mendelian sampling of genes of ancestors in a given generation to the relationship between individuals in later generations. These contributions stabilize with time and the value to which they stabilize is shown to be related to the asymptotic rate of inbreeding and therefore also the effective population size, where N is the number of individuals per generation and μr and are the mean and variance of long-term relationships or long-term contributions. These stabilized values are then predicted using a recursive equation via the concept of selective advantage for populations with hierarchical mating structures undergoing mass selection. Account is taken of the change in genetic parameters as a consequence of selection and also the increasing ‘competitiveness’ of contemporaries as selection proceeds. Examples are given and predicted rates of inbreeding are compared to those calculated in simulations. For populations of 20 males and 20, 40, 100 or 200 females the rate of inbreeding was found to increase by as much as 75% over the rate of inbreeding in an unselected population depending on mating ratio, selection intensity and heritability of the selected trait. The prediction presented here estimated the rate of inbreeding usually within 5% of that calculated from simulation.


2011 ◽  
Vol 175-176 ◽  
pp. 439-444 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jian Tao Niu ◽  
Qi Hu ◽  
Jian Mei Xu ◽  
Suo Zhuai Dong ◽  
Lun Bai

Based on the sampling and grading theory of raw silk test, this paper studied the grading theory method of thick and thin defects of the raw silk in the electronic testing. By means of analyzing the data obtained from the raw silk electronic detector, the fact that the thick and thin defects of the raw silk appropriately take negative binomial distribution in the electronic testing has been confirmed. Under such circumstance, the distribution of the average of the sampling samples of the thick and thin defects was given, and fitting on the relationship between the mean and variance of the thick and thin defects were carried out by introducing Taylor’s power law equation, thus the right grading rate and probability of the difference between two spot tests about the thick and thin defects of the raw silk in the electronic testing was deduced. Moreover, the conclusion of the theoretical analysis was confirmed by simulation tests. The results might provide a basis for establishing the grading standards of the thick and thin defects in the electronic testing for raw silk.


Genetics ◽  
1979 ◽  
Vol 93 (3) ◽  
pp. 755-771
Author(s):  
Montgomery Slatkin

ABSTRACT The equilibrium distribution of a quantitative character subject to frequency- and density-dependent selection is found under different assumptions about the genetical basis of the character that lead to a normal distribution in a population. Three types of models are considered: (1) one-locus models, in which a single locus has an additive effect on the character, (2) continuous genotype models, in which one locus o r several loci contribute additively to a character, and there is an effectively infinite range of values of the genotypic contributions from each locus, and (3) correlation models, in which the mean and variance of the character can change only through selection at modifier loci. I t is shown that the second and third models lead to the same equilibrium values of the total population size and the mean and variance of the character. One-locus models lead to different equilibrium values because of constraints on the relationship between the mean and variance imposed by the assumptions of those models.—The main conclusion is that, at the equilibrium reached under frequency- and density-dependent selection, the distribution of a normally distributed quantitative character does not depend on the underlying genetic model as long as the model imposes no constraints on the mean and variance.


1993 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 223-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Woodwark ◽  
D. O. F. Skibinski ◽  
R. D. Ward

SummaryThree tests of neutral theory were carried out using a large dataset of vertebrate allozyme studies. The first test considered the relationship between the mean and variance of single locus heterozygosity across a sample of enzymes and non-enzymatic proteins. The second test compared the distributions of heterozygosity between paired proteins in balanced datasets in which each protein is scored for the same sample of species. The third test compared the observed distribution of single locus heterozygosity with theoretical distributions predicted by neutral theory. The results show an excellent quantitative fit with the predictions of neutral theory, though some small deviations from neutrality were observed which are consistent with the action of natural selection.


i-Perception ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 204166951774729 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi Yang ◽  
Midori Tokita ◽  
Akira Ishiguchi

A number of studies revealed that our visual system can extract different types of summary statistics, such as the mean and variance, from sets of items. Although the extraction of such summary statistics has been studied well in isolation, the relationship between these statistics remains unclear. In this study, we explored this issue using an individual differences approach. Observers viewed illustrations of strawberries and lollypops varying in size or orientation and performed four tasks in a within-subject design, namely mean and variance discrimination tasks with size and orientation domains. We found that the performances in the mean and variance discrimination tasks were not correlated with each other and demonstrated that extractions of the mean and variance are mediated by different representation mechanisms. In addition, we tested the relationship between performances in size and orientation domains for each summary statistic (i.e. mean and variance) and examined whether each summary statistic has distinct processes across perceptual domains. The results illustrated that statistical summary representations of size and orientation may share a common mechanism for representing the mean and possibly for representing variance. Introspections for each observer performing the tasks were also examined and discussed.


1988 ◽  
Vol 120 (8-9) ◽  
pp. 773-778 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Iperti ◽  
L. Lapchin ◽  
A. Ferran ◽  
J.-M. Rabasse ◽  
J.-P. Lyon

AbstractA sequential sampling program was designed for Coccinella septempunctata L. adults in wheat fields, based on a rapid visual counting method. This program takes into account the spatial heterogeneity of coccinellids and the efficiency of the counting method. The relationship between the mean and variance of the numbers sampled was described by Taylor’s power law.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document