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Motion enhances or reduces target visibility, depending on prediction and postdiction of shape

University of British Columbia

Motion masking refers to the finding that objects are less visible when they appear as part of an apparent motion sequence than when they appear for the same duration in isolation. Against this backdrop of generally impaired visibility, there are reports of a relative visibility benefit when a target on the motion path is spatiotemporally predictable versus when it is unpredictable. The present study investigates whether prediction based on the shape of the originating stimulus in the motion sequence, and postdiction based on the terminating shape, is an aid to the visibility of a target in motion. In Experiment 1 these factors are examined separately for originating and terminating stimuli; in Experiment 2 they are examined in combination. The results show that both factors influence target discriminability in an additive way, suggesting that the processes of prediction and postdiction have independent influences on visibility. Experiment 3 examines the same display sequences with a different psychophysical task (i.e., detection) in an effort to reconcile the present findings with previous contradictory results. The upshot is that in contrast to the results for discrimination, target detection is influenced little by these factors. Experiments 4 and 5 examine the discrimination of a fine shape detail of the target, in contrast to the crude discrimination of target orientation in Experiments 1 and 2. This design also eliminates the opportunity for decision-biases to influence the results. The results show that predictable motion has a strong positive influence on target shape discrimination, to the extent that it makes a backward-masked target even more visible than when it appears in isolation. These findings are related to the empirical literature on visual masking and interpreted within the theoretical framework of object updating.

Text

2011-09-01

Attribution 3.0 Unported

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/37054

Psychology

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/