Reaction times to motion onset were measured for targets in the peripheral field. Horizontal motion away from fixation evoked faster reactions than did motion toward fixation. The difference between motion toward fixation and motion away from fixation (i) increases with stimulus eccentricity, (ii) is not found when motion is along a vertical axis, and (iii) fails to affect contrast thresholds. The anisotropy between centrifugal and centripetal motion is correlated with differences in the apparent speed of targets moving in the two directions.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AnnisR CFrostB, 1973“Human visual ecology and orientation anisotropies in acuity”Science182729–731.
2.
AppelleS, 1972“Perception and discrimination as a function of stimulus orientation: The ‘oblique effect’ in man and animals”Psychological Bulletin78266–278.
3.
BallKSekulerR, 1979“Masking of motion by broadband and filtered directional noise”Perception and Psychophysics26206–214.
4.
BarlowH B, 1975“Visual experience and cortical development”Nature (London)258199–204.
5.
CynaderMBermanNHeinA, 1975“Cats reared in a one-directional world: Effects on receptive fields in visual cortex and superior colliculus”Experimental Brain Research22267–280.
6.
FehrerERaabD, 1962“Reaction time to stimuli masked by metacontrast”Journal of Experimental Psychology63143–147.
7.
GeorgesonM AHarrisM G, 1978“Apparent foveofugal drift of counterphase gratings”Perception7527–536.
8.
GordonD A, 1965“Static and dynamic fields in space perception”Journal of the Optical Society of America551296–1303.
9.
von HelmholtzH, 1964Physiological Opticsvolume 3 (New York: Dover).
10.
KulikowskiJ JTolhurstD J, 1973“Psychophysical evidence for sustained and transient detectors in human vision”Journal of Physiology (London)232149–162.
11.
LevinsonESekulerR, 1975“The independence of channels in human vision selective for direction of movement”Journal of Physiology (London)250347–366.
12.
LevinsonESekulerR, 1980“A two-dimensional analysis of direction-specific adaptation”Vision Research20103–108.
13.
McColginF H, 1960“Movement thresholds in peripheral vision”Journal of the Optical Society of America50774–779.
14.
NeisserU, 1976Cognition and Reality (San Francisco: W H Freeman).
15.
SchillerP HStrykerH, 1972“Single-unit recording and stimulation in superior colliculus of alert rhesus monkey”Journal of Neurophysiology35915–924.
16.
ScottT RLavenderA DMcWhirtR APowellD A, 1966“Directional asymmetry of motion aftereffect”Journal of Experimental Psychology71806–815.
17.
SekulerR, 1978“Minicomputers and vision research” in Laboratory Computers in Perception and Information Processing Eds MayznerMDolanT (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates) pp 123–160.
18.
SekulerRBallK, 1977“Mental set alters visibility of moving targets”Science19860–62.
19.
SterlingPWickelgrenB G, 1969“Visual receptive fields in the superior colliculus of the cat”Journal of Neurophysiology321–15.
20.
SwitkesEMayerM JSloanJ A, 1978“Spatial frequency analysis of the visual environment: Anisotropy and the carpentered-environment hypothesis”Vision Research181393–1399.
21.
TeichnerW HKrebsM J, 1972“Laws of simple visual reaction time”Psychological Review79344–358.
22.
Vital-DurandFJeannerodM, 1974“Maturation of the optokinetic response: Genetic and environmental factors”Brain Research71249–257.
