mutual masking

Mutual masking refers to a phenomenon in vision science where strong or prominent visual stimuli can make it difficult to see or notice other nearby stimuli. For example, if a bright light or bold pattern is present, it can "mask" or obscure less intense nearby details, reducing their visibility. This occurs because our visual system prioritizes certain signals over others, and the presence of the dominant stimulus suppresses or distracts from detecting adjacent, subtler signals. Mutual masking is important in understanding how we process complex visual scenes, especially when multiple stimuli are present simultaneously.