Meanings
- uncountableA visual phenomenon where the perceived brightness of a stimulus is reduced when it is preceded by an adjacent visual stimulus.
An apparatus for the demonstration of the phenomena of the time relations of visual stimuli, and of meta- and paracontrast.
1918, PHYSIOLOGICAL ABSTRACTS, volume III, THE PHYSIOLOGICAL SOCIETY (GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND), page 5572 more examples
Masking between non-overlapping stimuli is termed paracontrast when the mask precedes the target, and metacontrast then the mask follows the target (equivalent to forward and backward masking between overlapping stimuli).
1989, Glyn W. Humphreys, Vicki Bruce, Visual Cognition: Computational, Experimental and Neuropsychological Perspectives, Psychology Press, page 123A particular type of forward masking, in which the target and mask are spatially nonoverlapping, as in metacontrast, is called paracontrast masking.
2014 June 12, Bruno G. Breitmeyer, The Visual (Un)Conscious and Its (Dis)Contents: A microtemporal approach, Oxford University Press, page 51
Origin
Cite this entry
paracontrast. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/paracontrast
“paracontrast.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/paracontrast. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “paracontrast,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/paracontrast.
Source: paracontrast on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.