Monocular and Dichoptic Interactions between Moving and Stationary Stimuli

Abstract

Visual motion of a physically stationary stimulus can be induced by the movement of adjacent stimuli. The frequencies of motion reports and the angular separations required to induce motion were determined for a number of stimulus configurations. A stationary stimulus was fixated in the centre of the display and the point at which induced motion was initially reported was measured. In the first experiment either one or two stationary stimuli were presented in the centre of a display and either one or two similar stimuli moved horizontally towards them. The percentage of trials on which motion was induced varied with the display configuration, being greatest with two moving and one stationary stimuli. The angular separations at which motion was reported were about 2 deg for all conditions. In the second experiment the binocular interaction of such induced motion was examined. A single static fixation stimulus was presented binocularly and a range of monocular or dichoptic conditions was examined: a single moving stimulus to one eye, two moving stimuli to one eye, or two moving stimuli dichoptically. Induced motion was reported on about 90% of the trials for the monocular and dichoptic conditions with two moving stimuli. Motion was first induced at similar angular separations by two moving stimuli, whether presented monocularly or dichoptically. Binocular interaction was further examined with a display that induced motion in the stimulus presented to one eye but not in that presented to the other: this resulted in the apparent motion in depth of the binocularly fixated stimulus.