Abstract
Would a motion-picture film of a rotating spiral induce a spiral aftereffect? This question was studied in two experiments in which Ss viewed an animated film of circles collapsing to a point. The rate of apparent motion of the collapsing circles and the discontinuity of motion—the length of jump between successively projected circles—were varied independently. A visual aftereffect like the spiral aftereffect was created. The aftereffect increased in strength and duration with the rate of motion, but at all rates of motion it declined as discontinuity of motion increased. The results are taken as evidence that motion aftereffects are caused by selective fatigue of small, directionally sensitive motion-receptive fields.
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The authors thank w. R. Garner for lending his Perceptiscope and DigiBits programming equipment for the second experiment. R. L. Gottwald and G. Felfoldy for assistance with the apparatus, W. Koteff for programming the CALCOMP plotter. and C. K. Peck, A. Pantle, and D. Berger for advice in the preparation of this article. A Pomona College research grant and summer fellowship to W.P.B. supported most of this work.
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Banks, W.P., Kane, D.A. Discontinuity of seen motion reduces the visual motion aftereffect. Perception & Psychophysics 12, 69–72 (1972). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03212845
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03212845