When is motion 'motion'?

Perception. 2008;37(4):624-7. doi: 10.1068/p5812.

Abstract

Examples of visual motion have become more and more abstract over the years, leading up to 'third-order' stimuli where direction is actually determined by the observer through top - down attention. But how far can this be pushed--are there motion stimuli that are yet more arbitrary and abstract? Actually, there is a broad class of 'conceptual motion' stimuli--things like a moving grating of faces, or a shifting pattern of words--that are perfect analogs to traditional 'perceptual motion' stimuli, solvable by the same motion computation and for which observers can readily make direction-of-motion judgments. Interestingly though, these do not produce a sensation of motion (among other automatic consequences of motion detection). Here we compare a luminance-based perceptual motion stimulus to a semantic-based conceptual motion stimulus to contrast the psychophysical hallmarks of these motion categories.

Publication types

  • Clinical Trial
  • Comparative Study

MeSH terms

  • Humans
  • Motion Perception / physiology*
  • Motion*
  • Optical Illusions*
  • Photic Stimulation
  • Psychophysics
  • Semantics