Display Power Saving Technology issues?

Hi everyone.  I recently got an Inspiron 14z running Windows 8 and I'm having some issues with the display brightness.  The screen brightness will flicker and change depending what is being displayed on the screen.  If something light in color is on the screen, it lightens and if something dark is on the screen, everything gets darker.  This is most noticeable when the laptop is running on battery (even set to the High Performance power plan with the brightness turned all the way up).  I recently noticed that it also does it while plugged in, albeit much less noticeably. 

I believe this has something to do with the "Display Power Saving Technology" option found under the graphics properties.  The problem is that turning the option off or fiddling with the settings does nothing.  I understand the point of the feature, but it's really annoying to have the screen constantly changing brightness when I don't need everything running in a low power mode, ESPECIALLY when it's plugged in.

I also could, of course, be completely wrong and it has nothing to do with the graphics properties

In any case, I'd really appreciate any tips or advice on fixing this.  Thanks in advance.