The Role of Motion in Object Recognition

Abstract

Do motion cues influence object recognition when contour information is available? Three experiments examined four motion conditions for a variety of objects (no motion, random motion, atypical motion, and typical motion) when contour information was also available. A typical motion pattern was one that would normally be associated with the moving object, whereas atypical motion involved a regular motion pattern that was typical for one object in the set of 15 used in the experiments, but wasn't associated with the object in motion. In Experiments 1 and 2, the objects were made difficult to recognize, by eliminating vertices and by using small representations, respectively. In Experiment 3, large, complete contour wire frame pictures were used. In all experiments, recognition speed and accuracy were best for the typical motion condition and second best for the atypical motion. With easily-recognized objects, random motion led to faster recognition than no motion, whereas, with difficult recognition, random motion led to slower response times than no motion. The results are interpreted with a three-process model. Applications to the design of computer icons, signage, and camouflage are discussed