An investigation was undertaken into whether judgments of time-to-contact between a laterally moving object and a bar are based on the direct perception of an optical variable (tau), or on the ratio between the perceived distance and perceived velocity of the object. A moving background was used to induce changes in the perceived velocities without changing the optical variables that specify time-to-contact. Background motion induced large systematic errors in the estimated time-to-contact. It is concluded that the judgment of time-to-contact is primarily based on the ratio between the perceived distance and the perceived velocity, and not on tau.
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