A quantitative study of perceptual vector analysis

Abstract

Building on the general notion of perceptual vector analysis (Johansson, 1950) and the more quantitative coding model (Restle, 1979), we propose a description of the stimulus based on a Fourier analysis of the motion stimulus. The Fourier description of the motion is more general than Restless description, which is based on the concept of circular motion. In addition, two experiments are reported in which subjects were asked to make psychophysical judgments about the orbits of moving stimuli. Those judgments allowed us to examine quantitatively the effects of several variables on perceptual vector analysis. © 1983 Psychonomic Society, Inc.