Journal article
Luminance and Contrast of Images in the THINGS Database
Perception, Vol.51(4), pp.244-262
2022
PMID: 35296165
Abstract
The THINGS database is a freely available stimulus set that has the potential to facilitate the generation of theory that bridges multiple areas within cognitive neuroscience. The database consists of 26,107 high quality digital photos that are sorted into 1,854 concepts. While a valuable resource, relatively few technical details relevant to the design of studies in cognitive neuroscience have been described. We present an analysis of two key low-level properties of THINGS images, luminance and luminance contrast. These image statistics are known to influence common physiological and neural correlates of perceptual and cognitive processes. In general, we found that the distributions of luminance and contrast are in close agreement with the statistics of natural images reported previously. However, we found that image concepts are separable in their luminance and contrast: we show that luminance and contrast alone are sufficient to classify images into their concepts with above chance accuracy. We describe how these factors may confound studies using the THINGS images, and suggest simple controls that can be implemented a priori or post-hoc. We discuss the importance of using such natural images as stimuli in psychological research.
Details
- Title
- Luminance and Contrast of Images in the THINGS Database
- Authors
- William J. Harrison (Corresponding Author) - University of Queensland
- Publication details
- Perception, Vol.51(4), pp.244-262; 19
- Publisher
- Sage Publications Ltd.
- DOI
- 10.1177/03010066221083397
- ISSN
- 1468-4233
- PMID
- 35296165
- Organisation Unit
- School of Health - Psychology
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99996898702621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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- Web Of Science research areas
- Ophthalmology
- Psychology
- Psychology, Experimental
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Source: InCites