Perceptual Style and Detection of Motion in Depth

Examination of data collected in laboratory investigations indicated persistent individual differences in the detection of motion in depth, i.e., whether or not an object is approaching or receding. This finding stimulated the hypothesis that “perceptual style” might be the source of at least some of this variance, particularly as regards the detection of slowly moving or distant objects. Accordingly, an experiment was devised to test this hypothesis. The findings did not yield a significant interaction of perceptual style with rate of movement. However, there was a difference (p < .12) in detection times between the 2 groups who differed with regard to perceptual style. It was hypothesized that this was due to a cautious, slow approach to detection tasks on the part of field-dependent individuals.