Reciprocity and linearity of the Talbot-Plateau law extend to visibility and recognition of letters

The Talbot-Plateau law specifies when the brightness of a flicker stimulus will match a steady stimulus. Application of its principles requires symmetric influence of intensity differentials, i.e., with bright and dark flicker producing similar levels of perceptual response. Further, measures of intensity and duration of flicker pulses must be reciprocal and have linear scaling. Here we find that bright and dark flicker stimuli are comparable in their ability to elicit visibility and recognition of letters. We find that the probability of letter recognition is a linear function of stimulus energy, and provide comparable results for reciprocal changes to intensity and duration of flicker pulses. Confirming that the Talbot-Plateau principles apply to a wider range of perceptual judgments has experimental utility, as it provides a basis for specifying the impact of transient stimuli.