A new model for predicting the frequencies of apparent reversals in rotating trapezia, proposed by the authors in 1983, is validated and extended in two studies. Experiment 1 showed that the model retained its predictive efficiency over an increased range of shapes and viewing distances, and with trapezia made of sheet metal and not, as previously, of wire. Experiment 2 was designed to investigate an unexpected effect, in which the specificity of prediction was found to decrease as the corners of the stimulus objects were slightly rounded.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AmesA, 1951“Visual perception and the rotating trapezoidal window”Psychological Monographs65 (whole number 324)
2.
BraunsteinM L, 1972“Perception of rotation in depth: A process model”Psychological Review79510–524
3.
BraunsteinM L, 1976Depth Perception through Motion (London: Academic Press)
4.
BraunsteinM LPayneJ W, 1969“Perspective and form ratio as determinants of relative slant judgements”Journal of Experimental Psychology81584–590
5.
BraunsteinM LSternK R, 1980“Static and dynamic factors in the perception of rotary motion”Perception & Psychophysics27313–320
6.
DayR HPowerR P, 1965“Apparent reversal (oscillation), of rotary motion in depth: An investigation and a general theory”Psychological Review72117–127
7.
EpsteinWJanssonGJohanssonG, 1968“Perceived angle of oscillatory motion”Perception & Psychophysics312–16
8.
FreemanR BJr, 1966“Function of cues in the perceptual learning of visual slant: An experimental and theoretical analysis”Psychological Monographs80 (2, whole number 610)
9.
GibsonJ J, 1966The Senses Considered as Perceptual Systems (Boston: Houghton Mifflin)
10.
MarrD, 1982Vision: A Computational Investigation into the Human Representation and Processing of Visual Information (San Francisco: Freeman)
11.
MitchellRPowerR P, 1983“Apparent reversal frequencies in squares and trapezia: The effect of invariant and variant information”Perception12375–392
12.
PoultonE C, 1973“Unwanted range effects from using within-subject experimental designs”Psychological Bulletin80113–121
13.
PowerR P, 1970“Interaction between treatments and order of treatments in studies of the apparent reversal of rotary motion in depth”Australian Journal of Psychology2235–39
14.
PowerR PDayR H, 1973“Constancy and illusion of apparent direction of rotary motion in depth: Tests of a theory”Perception & Psychophysics13217–223
15.
WallaceBCramerD E, 1975“Apparent reversals for circular and elliptical stimuli”Perceptual and Motor Skills40215–219
16.
ZegersR T, 1964“The reversal illusion of the Ames trapezoid”Transactions of the New York Academy of Sciences26377–400
