TIME COURSE OF CONTRAST ADAPTATION TO VDU-DISPLAYED TEXT

VDU text-editing induces contrast adaptation at the predominant spatial frequencies (periodicity) of the text page. Visual contrast sensitivity was tested after 10 and 60 min reading of VDU-displayed text of positive and negative contrast polarity. Contrast sensitivity impairments in the order of 0.4 to 0.7 log unit change in contrast thresholds were observed. This contrast threshold elevation after-effect decays as a power function of time, with time required to recover from adaptation approximately corresponding to the reading times. At low spatial frequencies (horizontal periodicity of rows), displays of negative polarity induce stronger contrast adaptation than displays of positive polarity, at medium spatial frequencies (vertical periodicity of characters) no effect of contrast polarity was observed. The results are discussed in relation to VDU-induced visual fatique.