Apparent Motion Perception: The Contribution of the Binocular and Monocular Systems. An Improved Test Based on Motion Aftereffects

Research concerning the perception of apparent motion is not easy to conduct: it is hard to obtain quantitative results that can be easily interpreted. A solution to this problem is the use of motion aftereffects (MAEs). Adapting subjects to a specific type of motion leads to apparent motion in the opposite direction when the stimulus is removed. However, subjects are aware of the change in stimulus conditions. A new dynamic test stimulus is proposed in order to avoid artefacts introduced by the awareness of the conditions by the subject. A model, derived from earlier observations, is described which includes contributions from monocular and binocular systems. Results from an experiment in which the dynamic test stimulus was used show that they do not necessarily reproduce the results obtained with a static test stimulus. Central monocular systems are added to the model to account for this discrepancy. The ‘pooling hypothesis’, which states that the MAE is a weighted mean of the processes involved, permits the estimation of the weights of the individual subsystems. The results of the experiments are explained in terms of this hypothesis by the new model.