An allocentric exception confirms an egocentric rule: a comment on Taghizadeh and Gail (2014).

Paul Dassonville,Benjamin D Lester,Scott A Reed

doi:10.3389/fnhum.2014.00942

Abstract

An allocentric exception confirms an egocentric rule: a comment on Taghizadeh and Gail (2014).

Highlights

When a visual cue is presented in the context of a large rectangle shifted laterally from an observer’s midline, its location is perceived to be shifted in the opposite direction
We have shown evidence that the perceptual effect of the illusion is brought about by a distortion of the observer’s egocentric reference frame—the offset rectangle attracts the observer’s subjective straight-ahead (SSA), causing the cue to appear to be shifted in the opposite direction
We have begun to refer to this cancelation of errors, which allows for accurate actions in spite of the illusion, as the Two-Wrongs model, since, according to the model, two wrongs do make a right (Dassonville and Reed, under review)

Summary

Introduction

We have shown evidence that the perceptual effect of the illusion is brought about by a distortion of the observer’s egocentric reference frame—the offset rectangle attracts the observer’s subjective straight-ahead (SSA), causing the cue to appear to be shifted in the opposite direction. If an action aimed at the cue is guided within this same distorted egocentric reference frame, the error of motor guidance will cancel with the error of perceptual encoding, allowing the movement to be accurate (Dassonville and Bala, 2004a,b; Dassonville et al, 2004).

Results

Conclusion