Visual perception of motion in depth: Application of a vector model to three-dot motion patterns

We tested an information foraging framework to characterise the mechanisms that drive active (visual) sampling behaviour in decision problems that involve multiple sources of information. Experiments 1-3 involved participants making an absolute judgement about the direction of motion of a single random dot motion pattern. In Experiment 4, participants made a relative comparison between two motion patterns that could only be sampled sequentially. Our results show that: (i) Information (about noisy motion information) grows to an asymptotic level that depends on the quality of the information source; (ii) The limited growth is due to unequal weighting of the incoming sensory evidence, with early samples being weighted more heavily; (iii) Little information is lost once a new source of information is being sampled; (iv) The point at which the observer switches from one source to another is governed by on-line monitoring of his or her degree of (un)certainty about the sampled source. These findings demonstrate that the sampling strategy in perceptual decision-making is under some direct control by ongoing cognitive processing. More specifically, participants are able to track a measure of (un)certainty and use this information to guide their sampling behaviour.

Download Full-text

An MEG study into the visual perception of apparent motion in depth

Neuroscience Letters ◽

10.1016/j.neulet.2006.04.046 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 403 (1-2) ◽

pp. 40-45 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Chia-Yen Yang ◽

Jen-Chuen Hsieh ◽

Yin Chang

Keyword(s):

Visual Perception ◽

Apparent Motion ◽

Motion In Depth

Download Full-text

The Visual Perception of Motion in Depth

Scientific American ◽

10.1038/scientificamerican0779-136 ◽

1979 ◽

Vol 241 (1) ◽

pp. 136-151 ◽

Cited By ~ 96

Author(s):

David Regan ◽

Kenneth Beverley ◽

Max Cynader

Keyword(s):

Visual Perception ◽

Motion In Depth

Download Full-text

The cerebral activity related to the visual perception of forward motion in depth

Brain ◽

10.1093/brain/117.5.1039 ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 117 (5) ◽

pp. 1039-1054 ◽

Cited By ~ 107

Author(s):

B. M.de Jong ◽

S. Shipp ◽

B. Skidmore ◽

R. S. J. Frackowiak ◽

S. Zeki

Keyword(s):

Visual Perception ◽

Forward Motion ◽

Motion In Depth ◽

Cerebral Activity

Download Full-text

Perception of animacy in dogs and humans

Biology Letters ◽

10.1098/rsbl.2017.0156 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 13 (6) ◽

pp. 20170156 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Judit Abdai ◽

Bence Ferdinandy ◽

Cristina Baño Terencio ◽

Ákos Pogány ◽

Ádám Miklósi

Keyword(s):

Visual Perception ◽

Movement Patterns ◽

Specific Pattern ◽

Video Display ◽

Human Species ◽

Human Infants ◽

Motion Patterns ◽

Motion Cues ◽

Simple Motion ◽

Independent Motion

Humans have a tendency to perceive inanimate objects as animate based on simple motion cues. Although animacy is considered as a complex cognitive property, this recognition seems to be spontaneous. Researchers have found that young human infants discriminate between dependent and independent movement patterns. However, quick visual perception of animate entities may be crucial to non-human species as well. Based on general mammalian homology, dogs may possess similar skills to humans. Here, we investigated whether dogs and humans discriminate similarly between dependent and independent motion patterns performed by geometric shapes. We projected a side-by-side video display of the two patterns and measured looking times towards each side, in two trials. We found that in Trial 1, both dogs and humans were equally interested in the two patterns, but in Trial 2 of both species, looking times towards the dependent pattern decreased, whereas they increased towards the independent pattern. We argue that dogs and humans spontaneously recognized the specific pattern and habituated to it rapidly, but continued to show interest in the ‘puzzling’ pattern. This suggests that both species tend to recognize inanimate agents as animate relying solely on their motions.

Download Full-text

Effects of stereopsis on vection, presence and cybersickness in head-mounted display (HMD) virtual reality

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-89751-x ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Wilson Luu ◽

Barbara Zangerl ◽

Michael Kalloniatis ◽

Juno Kim

Keyword(s):

Virtual Reality ◽

Visual Perception ◽

Head Movement ◽

Radial Flow ◽

Spatial Presence ◽

Motion In Depth ◽

Head Mounted Display ◽

Global Stereopsis ◽

Object Form ◽

Self Motion

AbstractStereopsis provides critical information for the spatial visual perception of object form and motion. We used virtual reality as a tool to understand the role of global stereopsis in the visual perception of self-motion and spatial presence using virtual environments experienced through head-mounted displays (HMDs). Participants viewed radially expanding optic flow simulating different speeds of self-motion in depth, which generated the illusion of self-motion in depth (i.e., linear vection). Displays were viewed with the head either stationary (passive radial flow) or laterally swaying to the beat of a metronome (active conditions). Multisensory conflict was imposed in active conditions by presenting displays that either: (i) compensated for head movement (active compensation condition), or (ii) presented pure radial flow with no compensation during head movement (active no compensation condition). In Experiment 1, impairing stereopsis by anisometropic suppression in healthy participants generated declines in reported vection strength, spatial presence and severity of cybersickness. In Experiment 2, vection and presence ratings were compared between participants with and without clinically-defined global stereopsis. Participants without global stereopsis generated impaired vection and presence similarly to those found in Experiment 1 by subjects with induced stereopsis impairment. We find that reducing global stereopsis can have benefits of reducing cybersickness, but has adverse effects on aspects of self-motion perception in HMD VR.

Download Full-text

Asymmetries in the Sensitivity to Motion in Depth: A Centripetal Bias

Perception ◽

10.1068/p221013 ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 22 (9) ◽

pp. 1013-1023 ◽

Cited By ~ 90

Author(s):

Mark Edwards ◽

David R Badcock

Keyword(s):

Visual Field ◽

Visual Experience ◽

Image Motion ◽

Lower Visual Field ◽

Motion In Depth ◽

Motion Stimulus ◽

Upper Visual Field ◽

Forward Locomotion ◽

Dot Motion

It is reasonable to ask whether observers are more sensitive to the pattern of image motion caused by forward locomotion through the environment than to the pattern caused by backward locomotion. The distribution of sensitivities of cells in MT does show such a bias, although this bias is minimal at small eccentricities. Additionally, both locomotion-induced stimulation and the sensitivities of MT cells suggest greater sensitivity should be obtained in the lower visual field. Previous research on this issue has usually employed frontoparallel motion in patterns presented to one side of the fixation point. Both centrifugal and centripetal biases have been obtained. In this study the stimuli present motion signals that travel radially from (or towards) the fixation point. These stimuli, which produce a strong percept of motion in depth, are an adaptation of the global-dot-motion stimulus employed by Newsome and Pare. With these stimuli we find that sensitivity to motion in depth is greater in the lower visual field than in the upper visual field, and that sensitivity is greater to centripetal motion than to either centrifugal or frontoparallel motion. This centrifugal bias in sensitivity decreases with eccentricity. The last two findings contradict the notion that the bias is produced by the visual experience induced by normal forward locomotion and also that the detection of motion in depth is subserved by MT.

Download Full-text

Spatial determinants of depth perception in two-dot motion patterns

Perception & Psychophysics ◽

10.3758/bf03210375 ◽

1972 ◽

Vol 11 (4) ◽

pp. 263-268 ◽

Cited By ~ 49

Author(s):

Erik BÖrjesson ◽

Claes Von Hofsten

Keyword(s):

Depth Perception ◽

Motion Patterns ◽

Dot Motion

Download Full-text

Structural Constraints: Further Evidence from Apparent Motion in Depth

Perception ◽

10.1068/p220323 ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 22 (3) ◽

pp. 323-334 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Maurice Hershenson

Keyword(s):

Apparent Motion ◽

Three Dimensional ◽

Structural Constraints ◽

Motion Patterns ◽

Motion In Depth ◽

Point Patterns ◽

Light Point ◽

Rigidity Constraint ◽

Second Category ◽

Perceived Motion

The three-dimensional (3-D) apparent motion of lines, outline triangles, and light points was studied in four experiments. The stimulus sequences were beginning and end patterns of 3-D motions of a line and a triangle. Light-point patterns corresponded to the ends of the lines and the vertices of the triangles. Perceived motion of lines and light-point pairs resembled the distal motions that were used to construct the proximal patterns. The correspondence was striking for configurations that appeared to move in depth. Outline triangles and light-point triplets produced a strong correspondence between distal and perceived motions when the three sides appeared to be translating in depth. The correspondence was reasonably good for the other motion patterns when scoring included an appropriate second category. The results support the conception of structural or internalized constraints: light points were processed as if they were connected (unity constraint) and proximal change in linear size (or distance between light points) was perceived as rigid 3-D motion (rigidity constraint).

Download Full-text