Abstract
We measured human sensitivity to the relative motion of blobs moving in the peripheral visual field. The stimuli consisted of one or two blobs (Gaussian luminance profiles) oscillating relative to an (invisible) reference frame which rotated with constant angular velocity about a fixation point. We determined thresholds for detecting the oscillation of different configurations of one or two blobs as a function of velocity, eccentricity (viewing distance), and temporal frequency. By determining thresholds as a function of frequency the temporal characteristics of the detection system could be revealed. Thresholds are higher for oscillations in the motion direction of the reference frame than perpendicular to it. No influence has been found of the position of the blobs in the frame of reference. The thresholds are scale-invariant. For low frequencies (<2 Hz) the threshold amplitude of the velocity modulation is constant whereas for high frequencies (>2 Hz) the threshold amplitude of the position modulation is constant. This behaviour can be well described by a model which detects the oscillations whenever, within a critical time (of about 200 ms for two blobs), the relative displacement is larger than a critical distance. The critical distance shows the same dependence on velocity as the span in the bilocal detector model of Koenderink et al (1985 Journal of the Optical Society of America A2 252 – 259).
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