THE VISIBILITY OF SINGLE LINES AT VARIOUS ILLUMINATIONS AND THE RETINAL BASIS OF VISUAL RESOLUTION

The visual resolution of a single opaque line against an evenly illuminated background has been studied over a large range of background brightness. It was found that the visual angle occupied by the thickness of the line when it is just resolved varies from about 10 minutes at the lowest illuminations to 0.5 second at the highest illuminations, a range of 1200 to 1. The relation between background brightness and just resolvable visual angle shows two sections similar to those found in other visual functions; the data at low light intensities represent rod vision while those at the higher intensities represent cone vision. With violet light instead of white the two sections become even more clearly defined and separated. The retinal image produced by the finest perceptible line at the highest brightness is not a sharp narrow shadow, but a thin broad shadow whose density distribution is described in terms of diffraction optics. The line of foveal cones occupying the center of this shadow suffers a decrease in the light intensity by very nearly 1 per cent in comparison either with the general retinal illumination or with that on the row of cones to either side of the central row. Since this percentage difference is near the limit of intensity discrimination by the retina, its retinal recognition is probably the limiting factor in the visual resolution of the line. The resolution of a line at any light intensity may also be limited by the just recognizable intensity difference, because this percentage difference varies with the prevailing light intensity. As evidence for this it is found that the just resolvable visual angle varies with the light intensity in the same way that the power of intensity discrimination of the eye varies with light intensity. It is possible that visual resolution of test objects like hooks and broken circles is determined by the recognition of intensity differences in their diffracted images, since the way in which their resolution varies with the light intensity is similar to the relation between intensity discrimination and light intensity.