Perceptual deformation induced by visual motion

Date

2001

Authors

Zanker, Johannes
Quenzer, Tanja
Fahle, Manfred

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Springer

Abstract

The perceived position of a moving object can be misleading because the object has advanced while its previous retinal image has been transmitted through the visual stream, leading to a mismatch between actual location and its neural representation. It has been suggested that the human visual system compensates for neural processing delays to retrieve instantaneous position. However, such a mechanism would require a precise measure of the actual delay in order to provide a reliable position estimate. A novel illusory deformation of moving contours demonstrates that humans misjudge the spatial relationship between parts of coherently moving targets, and therefore do not perfectly account for neural delays. The size of this deformation increases with growing speed. In some subjects this illusion can be reversed by varying the luminance of individual dots; a manipulation that affects the neural delays. Our experiments agree with other evidence that the capacity of the visual system to compensate for processing delays is limited.

Description

Keywords

Keywords: article; human; human experiment; luminance; motion; normal human; perception; psychometry; visual nervous system; visual stimulation; Decision Making; Fixation, Ocular; Humans; Illusions; Judgment; Motion Perception; Reaction Time; Visual Perception

Citation

Source

Naturwissenschaften

Type

Journal article

Book Title

Entity type

Access Statement

License Rights

Restricted until

2037-12-31