Human vs model observers in anatomic backgrounds

Model observers have been compared to human performance detecting low contrast signals in a variety of computer generated background including white noise, correlated noise, lumpy backgrounds, and two component noise. The purpose of the present paper is to extend this work by comparing a cumber of previously proposed model observers to human visual detection performance in real anatomic backgrounds. Human and model observer performance are compared as a function of increasing added white noise. Our results show that three of the four models are good predictors of human performance.