Asymmetric Mislocalization of a Visual Flash Ahead of and behind a Moving Object

When subjects localize a flash relative to another stationary stimulus, the flash appears displaced in the direction of nearby motion signals (position capture; Whitney and Cavanagh, 2000 Nature Neuroscience 3 954–959). Our previous study had suggested that the position capture is larger for a flash presented ahead of a moving stimulus than for a flash behind it (Watanabe et al, 2003 Perception 32 545–559). In the present study, I investigated the spatial asymmetry of position capture. Experiment 1 demonstrated that asymmetric position capture occurs primarily in a moving-object-centered coordinate. Experiment 2 showed evidence that the asymmetric position capture operates after individuation of single visual objects. Finally, experiment 3 demonstrated that, when attention was reduced with a dual-task procedure, the asymmetric position capture increased. These results suggest that the spatial asymmetry of position capture occurs without attention but the spatial bias can be reduced by attention. Therefore, the underlying mechanism for the asymmetric spatial bias may be different from attentive tracking (Cavanagh, 1992 Science 257 1563–1565) and mislocalization during smooth pursuit (Brenner et al, 2001 Vision Research 41 2253–2259).

[1]  A Straube,et al.  Mislocalization of peripheral targets during fixation , 2001, Vision Research.

[2]  Eli Brenner,et al.  Separate simultaneous processing of egocentric and relative positions , 2000, Vision Research.

[3]  P Cavanagh,et al.  Attention-based motion perception. , 1992, Science.

[4]  David C. Burr,et al.  Compression of visual space before saccades , 1997, Nature.

[5]  L. Mitrani,et al.  Retinal location and visual localization during pursuit eye movement , 1982, Vision Research.

[6]  Kuno Kirschfeld,et al.  Analogous Mechanisms Compensate for Neural Delays in the Sensory and the Motor Pathways Evidence from Motor Flash-Lag , 2003, Current Biology.

[7]  E. Brenner,et al.  Hitting moving targets Continuous control of the acceleration of the hand on the basis of the target’s velocity , 1998, Experimental Brain Research.

[8]  David Whitney,et al.  Motion distorts visual space: shifting the perceived position of remote stationary objects , 2000, Nature Neuroscience.

[9]  Bart Krekelberg,et al.  Postsaccadic visual references generate presaccadic compression of space , 2000, Nature.

[10]  Shinsuke Shimojo,et al.  Perceptual organization of moving stimuli modulates the flash-lag effect. , 2001, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[11]  Patrick Cavanagh,et al.  The motion-induced position shift depends on the perceived direction of bistable quartet motion , 2004, Vision Research.

[12]  D Kerzel,et al.  The role of perception in the mislocalization of the final position of a moving target. , 2001, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[13]  P. Cavanagh,et al.  Focused attention distorts visual space: an attentional repulsion effect. , 1997, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[14]  William Prinzmetal,et al.  Phenomenology of attention: I. Color, location, orientation, and spatial frequency. , 1998 .

[15]  David Whitney,et al.  The influence of visual motion on perceived position , 2002, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[16]  S. Mateeff,et al.  Peripheral vision and perceived visual direction , 1983, Biological Cybernetics.

[17]  Takashi R Sato,et al.  Perceived Shifts of Flashed Stimuli by Visible and Invisible Object Motion , 2003, Perception.

[18]  William Prinzmetal,et al.  The Phenomenology of Attention , 1997, Consciousness and Cognition.

[19]  Marius Usher,et al.  Visual synchrony affects binding and segmentation in perception , 1998, Nature.

[20]  Keiji Uchikawa,et al.  Apparent size of an object remains uncompressed during presaccadic compression of visual space , 2001, Vision Research.

[21]  B. Khurana,et al.  Perceptual organization of moving stimuli modulates the relative position of a visual flash , 2000 .

[22]  S. Klein,et al.  Evidence for an Attentional Component of the Perceptual Misalignment between Moving and Flashing Stimuli , 2002, Perception.

[23]  D. Kerzel Memory for the position of stationary objects: disentangling foveal bias and memory averaging , 2002, Vision Research.

[24]  Paul Dassonville,et al.  The use of egocentric and exocentric location cues in saccadic programming , 1995, Vision Research.

[25]  Katsumi Watanabe Visual grouping by motion precedes the relative localization between moving and flashed stimuli. , 2004, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[26]  Kazumichi Matsumiya,et al.  Distortion of Visual Space During Pursuit Eye Movements , 2000 .

[27]  S J Anderson,et al.  Evidence for dissociation between the perceptual and visuomotor systems in humans , 2001, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences.

[28]  D M Wolpert,et al.  Sensorimotor integration compensates for visual localization errors during smooth pursuit eye movements. , 2001, Journal of neurophysiology.

[29]  Eli Brenner,et al.  Spatial but Not Temporal Cueing Influences the Mislocalisation of a Target Flashed during Smooth Pursuit , 2002, Perception.

[30]  Romi Nijhawan,et al.  Motion extrapolation in catching , 1994, Nature.

[31]  Szonya Durant,et al.  Temporal dependence of local motion induced shifts in perceived position , 2004, Vision Research.

[32]  H. Honda Modification of saccade-contingent visual mislocalization by the presence of a visual frame of reference , 1999, Vision Research.

[33]  H. Honda Saccade-contingent displacement of the apparent position of visual stimuli flashed on a dimly illuminated structured background , 1993, Vision Research.

[34]  Jennifer J. Freyd,et al.  Representational momentum when attention is divided , 2002 .

[35]  Heiner Deubel,et al.  Relative mislocalization of briefly presented stimuli in the retinal periphery , 1999, Perception & psychophysics.

[36]  Frans A. J. Verstraten,et al.  The Motion Aftereffect:A Modern Perspective , 1998 .

[37]  Shinsuke Shimojo,et al.  Shifts in perceived position of flashed stimuli by illusory object motion , 2002, Vision Research.

[38]  Eli Brenner,et al.  Smooth eye movements and spatial localisation , 2001, Vision Research.

[39]  Michael I. Jordan,et al.  An internal model for sensorimotor integration. , 1995, Science.