Backward illusory line motion: Visual motion perception can be influenced by retrospective stimulation.

Abstract

When a visual cue appears beside a horizontal line segment before the line appears, the illusory motion is perceived as a line extending from the side closest to the side farthest from the cue. This is known as illusory line motion (ILM). In Experiment 1, we presented the cue after the line onset and found that the line seemed to extend toward the side of the cue (backward ILM). In Experiment 2, we confirmed the robustness and replicability of the backward ILM. In Experiments 3 to 5, we investigated the role of endogenous and exogenous attention in the generation of backward ILM and found effects of attention, but not large enough to explain the backward ILM in Experiments 1 and 2. The current findings suggest that the direction of ILM depended on the temporal relation of whether the cue precedes or follows the stimulus appearance, and that attentional shift played a role in the perception of backward ILM.