Adjacency and attention as determiners of perceived motion

Abstract Motion induction was investigated as a function of depth adjacency and attention. Moving induction objects producing opposing induction effects in a test object were presented simultaneously at different distances in the visual field with the apparent distance of the test object varied relative to the induction objects. In agreement with the adjacency principle, it was found that separating the test and induction object in apparent depth decreased the induction effect. Instructions to attend to one and to ignore the other induction object while looking at the test object clearly modified the induction effect and accounted for about half of the total effect produced by depth adjacency. The results are discussed in terms of the measurement of attention and the ability to perceptually organize the visual world.