Thresholds were measured for discrimination of direction of a step angular rotation of gratings. The addition of simultaneous phase displacements (translation) had little effect on rotation thresholds for gratings over a considerable range; discrimination of rotation is unaffected by random directional translations an order of magnitude larger. Angular rotation discrimination thresholds increased with interstimulus interval (ISI). Thus discrimination is based at short ISIs (180 ms or less) on a percept of rotary motion, but at ISIs of several seconds by a spatial strategy (comparing static component orientations) relying on visual memory. Data points for the short-ISI region fell below the best-fitting straight line, and the slope of the short-ISI region of the curve was steeper than that of the long-ISI region. However, when either compound or simple gratings with uncorrelated spatial frequencies were used in the two stimulus frames, there was no evidence for a separate function at short ISIs. Orientation-change thresholds were measured for simple gratings as a function of contrast and spatial frequency. The contrast function showed saturation and the spatial frequency function was U-shaped. Rotation sensitivity for gratings is thus similar in its spatiotemporal properties to translation sensitivity. The findings support the proposal that rotation discrimination (at short ISIs) is achieved by a template mechanism combining signals from different directional detectors, rather than by cognitive comparison of the outputs of the directional mechanisms themselves.
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