Influence of Temporal Frequency on Perceived Speed

Abstract

The visual perception of velocity was studied in three experiments. The stimulus used in the first experiment was an endless striped belt moving behind a stable fixation line. In the second experiment a vertical moving line was presented in front of a stable striped background. In the third experiment the same moving line was pursued by the eye but the background was stable or moving either with the moving stimulus or in the opposite direction. The variables studied were the speed of the moving stimulus, the speed of the background, and the density (spatial frequency) of the stripes. Two theoretical explanations of the perceptual effects obtained are compared. The first explains variations of perceptual velocity in terms of density. The second asserts effects of perceptual velocity are contingent upon temporal frequency of encounters between the moving stimulus and the stable or moving contextual elements. The results favor the latter interpretation in the three experiments, but part of the results of Exp. 3 could be explained by the influence of ocular pursuit.