Abstract
We examined the perceptual coherence of two-component moving plaids. The gratings that constituted the plaids were either standard Fourier gratings (F), in which luminance was determined by a drifting sinusoid, or non-Fourier gratings (NF), in which the contrast of a random background was modulated by a drifting sinusoid. These NF gratings are examples of stimuli that generate a compelling percept of motion, even though they fail to elicit a motion signal from motion analyzers based on standard cross-correlation (Chubb & Sperling, 1988). Naive observers viewed three types of stimuli consisting of superpositions of these two components: (1) two standard drifting gratings (F/F), (2) two non-Fourier drifting gratings (NF/NF), and (3) one standard and one non-Fourier drifting grating (F/NF). As expected, the F/F stimulus yielded a compelling percept of coherent motion. The dominant percept of all the observers for the NF/NF stimulus was one of coherent motion, provided that both gratings were visible and of approximately equal contrast. None of the observers reported a dominant percept of coherent motion for the F/NF condition, over a wide range of contrasts for the two grating components and across two varieties of NF gratings. In view of the results of Albright (1992) and Albright and Chaudhuri (1989), that show that single cells in macaque V1 and MT respond to both F and NF motion, one cannot interpret our findings as evidence that F and NF motion are processed independently. Alternative, “higher level” interpretations based on the intrinsically ambiguous nature of the stimuli and physical laws governing the appearance of transparent objects are discussed.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Adelson, E. H., &Bergen, J. (1985). Spatiotemporal energy models for the perception of motion.Journal of the Optical Society of America,A2, 284–299.
Adelson, E. H., &Movshon, J. A. (1982). Phenomenal coherence of moving visual patterns.Nature,300, 523–525.
Albright, T. D. (1992). Form-cue invariant motion processing in primate visual cortex.Science,255, 1141–1143.
Albright, T. O., &Chaudhuri, A. (1989). Orientation selective responses to motion contrast boundaries in macaque V1.Neuroscience Abstracts,15, 323.
Albright, T. D., &Stoner, G. R. (1989). Motion perception survives figural cue heterogeneity.Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science,30(Suppl.), d74.
Chubb, C., &Sperung, G. (1988). Drift-balanced random stimuli: A general basis for studying non-Fourier motion perception.Journal of the Optical Society of America,A5, 1986–2006.
Chubb, C., &Sperling, G. (1989). Two motion perception mechanisms revealed through distance-driven reversal of apparent motion.Proceedings of the National Academy of Science,86, 2985–2989.
Emerson, R. C., Bergen, J. R., &Adelson, E. H. (1992). Directionally selective complex cells and the computation of motion energy in cat visual cortex.Vision Research,32, 203–218.
Emerson, R. C., Citron, M., Vaughn, W. J., &Klein, S. (1987). Nonlinear directionally selective subunits in complex cells of cat striate cortex.Journal of Neurophysiology,58, 33–65.
Ferrera, V. P., &Wilson, H. R. (1990). Perceived direction of moving two-dimensional patterns.Vision Research,30, 273–287.
Georgeson, M. A., &Sullivan, G. O. (1975). Contrast constancy: Deblurring in human vision by spatial frequency channels.Journal of Physiology,252, 627–656.
Heeger, O. (1987). Model for the extraction of image flow.Journal of the Optical Society of America,A4, 1455–1471.
Kersten, D. (1990). Transparency and the cooperative computation of scene attributes. In M. S. Landy & J. A. Movshon (Eds.),Computational models of visual processing (pp. 209–228). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Milkman, N., Schick, O., Rossetto, M., Ratliff, F., Shapley, R., &Victor, J. D. (1980). A two-dimensional computer-controlled visual stimulator.Behavior Research Methods & Instrumentation,12, 283–292.
Movshon, J. A., Adelson, E. H., Gizzi, M. S., &Newsome, W. T. (1985). The analysis of moving visual patterns. In C. Chagas, R. Gattass, & C. Gross (Eds.),Pattern recognition mechanisms (pp. 117–151). Experimental Brain Research (Suppl. 11). Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
Nakayama, K. (1985). Biological image motion processing: A review.Vision Research,25, 625–660.
Nakayama, K., &Shimojo, S. (1991). Bayesian inference and the perception of untextured stereograms.Investigative Ophthalomolgy & Visual Science,32(Suppl.), 696.
Newsome, W. T., Britten, K. H., &Movshon, J. A. (1989). Neuronal correlates of a perceptual decision.Nature,341, 52–54.
Newsome, W. T., &Paré, B. (1988). A selective impairment of motion perception following lesions of the middle temporal visual area (MT).Journal of Neuroscience,8, 2201–2211.
Reichardt, W. (1961). Autocorrelation, a principle for the evaluation of sensory information by the central nervous system. In W. A. Rosenbluth (Ed.),Sensory communication (pp. 303–317). New York: Wiley.
Salzman, C. D., Britten, K. H., &Newsome, W. T. (1990). Cortical microstimulation influences perceptual judgments of motion direction.Nature,346, 174–177.
Siegel, R. M., &Andersen, R. A. (1986). Motion perceptual deficits following ibotenic acid lesions of the middle temporal area (MT) in the behaving rhesus monkey.Society for Neuroscience Abstracts,12, 1183.
Siegel, R. M., &Andersen, R. A. (1988). Perception of three dimensional structure from motion in monkey and in man.Nature,331, 259–261.
Simoncelli, E. P., &Adelson, E. H. (1991). Relationship between gradient, spatiotemporal-energy, and regression models for motion perception.Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science,32(Suppl.), 893.
Stoner, G. R., &Albright, T. D. (1991). Responses of area MT neurons to non-coherently moving plaid patterns.Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science,32(Suppl.), 822.
Stoner, G. R., &Albright, T. D. (1992). Motion coherency rules are form-cue invariant.Vision Research,32, 465–475.
Stoner, G. R., Albright, T. D., &Ramachandran, V. S. (1990). Transparency and coherence in human motion perception.Nature,344, 153–155.
Turano, K. (1991). Evidence for a common motion mechanism of luminance- and contrast-modulated patterns: Selective adaptation.Perception,20, 455–466.
Turano, K., &Pantle, A. (1989). On the mechanism that encodes the movement of contrast variations: Velocity discrimination.Vision Research,29, 207–221.
Van Santen, J. P. H., &Sperling, O. (1985). Elaborated Reichardt detectors.Journal of the Optical Society of America,A2, 300–321.
Victor, J., &Conte, M. (1991). Coherence of Fourier and non-Fourier gratings: Cues of a feather flock together.Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science,32(Suppl.), 893.
Victor, J. D., &Conte, M. M. (1992). Evoked potential and psychophysical analysis of Fourier and non-Fourier motion mechanisms.Visual Neuroscience,9, 105–123.
Wilson, H. R. (1991). A psychophysically motivated model for two-dimensional motion perception.Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science,32(Suppl.), 893.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Victor, J.D., Conte, M.M. Coherence and transparency of moving plaids composed of Fourier and non-Fourier gratings. Perception & Psychophysics 52, 403–414 (1992). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03206700
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03206700