Flickering Curiosity?

N8F8 writes "Why do some people see monitor flicker more readily than others? I happen to be one of the lucky folks who can spot a 60Hz monitor from across the room. Most people seem oblivious to this flicker. Other people can only see it in their peripheral vision. I tried researching an answer and I stumbled on plenty of information about something called 'Critical Fusion Frequency'. There even appears to be quite a bit of research into this phenomena but I couldn't find much information on why flicker perception varies so greatly. Can anyone shed some (flicker-free) light on this?"

Comments

Re:Lucky?

[Neil Blender]

I think he means it in the way that someone might say, "I'm one of those lucky people who have explosive bouts of diarrhea eight times a day."

Here's something...

[Otter]

I don't have time to research this thoroughly but figured I owed you something in return for your informing me of the existence of Google Scholar...

From Shane Sidebottom's Masters thesis:

One factor that is not often examined in the flicker research conducted in psychophysics is individual variability. Some people are more sensitive to flicker than others (Rogowitz 1986). To develop an accurate flicker standard for the general population, the nature of the distribution of flicker sensitivity in the population must be considered. Individual differences may be attributable to many factors, such as gender, age, or personality. Young people are more sensitive to flicker than older people (Kim and Mayer, 1994). Women are more sensitive to flicker than men are (Maxwell, 1992). Personality has been cited by psychologists as affecting flicker perception (Amir and Ali, 1989). The factors that lead to individual variation in flicker sensitivity may be of little real use to those designing displays for the average user; however, knowledge of the extent of individual variability is useful.

There's more (plus a graph!), and the references should keep you occupied for a while. As to *why* -- well, *why* is a question that can keep researchers busy for quite a while.

Re:Audio corollary

[Flying Purple Wombat]

You mean that most other people can't hear that noise? I thought that most everyone could, and I was the only one who was really annoyed by it.

Most people can't hear it. It used to drive me crazy, I could hear CRTs, ultrasonic motion detectors, and other things that most people can't. As with many things, this is an individual variation. My son inherited this ability, but my daughter did not.

Now that I'm 0x29 years old, I can't hear a CRT unless my left ear is within 6 inches of it (my right ear can't hear it at all). High frequency hearing loss is common as age increases. In my case, loud music and pyrotechnics accelerated the process.