Pursuit-locked apparent motion

Abstract

A vertical line, illuminated in n brief pulses at each position, was repositioned a distance D to the right every T msec. Under some conditions, the appearance of a single line jumping from one position to the next (standard apparent motion) gave way to the striking appearance of a bundle of n parallel vertical lines moving with constant velocity across the entire screen. This appearance implies the emergence of continuous pursuit eye movements, which have previously been reported for similarly discontinuous displays. Such “pursuit-locked” apparent motion spontaneously occurred when D was less than about 3 deg of visual angle, and when T was less than a visual persistence time of about 100 msec but greater than a velocity-limited tracking time of about 18 msec per deg of visual angle. © 1984, The psychonomic soceity, inc. All rights reserved.