The detection of motion in the peripheral visual field

https://doi.org/10.1016/0042-6989(84)90140-8Get rights and content

Abstract

To assess the sensitivity of the periphery to motion, we measured differential motion detection and velocity discrimination as a function of eccentricity in the lower visual field. The differential motion threshold, a measure of the ability to detect relative motion (shear) between adjacent visual stimuli, is smaller than the minimum angle of resolution at all retinal loci tested. The target size required to produce the lowest differential motion threshold is surprisingly large, ranging from [ deg in the fovea to about 20 deg at 40° eccentricity. When the peripheral thresholds for differential motion and for resolution are normalized against the fovea and plotted on linear axes, the eccentricity functions are linear. Velocity discrimination (ΔV/V) is as precise in the periphery as it is in the fovea, amounting to about 6% for the optimum velocity range. In the fovea, the minimum Weber fraction is reached at velocities of 5deg/sec or faster. In the periphery this minimum is found for a faster range of velocities ( >30 deg/sec at 40° eccentricity). If target velocity is expressed in the resolution units/second appropriate to each tested eccentricity, the velocity discrimination functions coincide. Thus, while the spatial determinants of velocity discrimination follow the change in resolution found with eccentricity, peripheral temporal sensitivity must be nearly equal to foveal temporal sensitivity.

Reference (34)

  • WestheimerG. et al.

    The perception of temporal order in adjacent visual stimuli

    Vision Res.

    (1977)
  • WeymouthF.W.

    Visual sensory units and the minimal angle of resolution

    Am. J. Ophthal.

    (1958)
  • BrownJ.L.

    Flicker and intermittent stimulation

  • GibsonJ.J.

    The Perception of the Visual World

    (1950)
  • HelmholtzH.
  • HilzR. et al.

    Functional organization of the peripheral retina: sensitivity to periodic stimuli

    Vision Res.

    (1974)
  • HubelD.H. et al.

    Uniformity of monkey striate cortex: a parallel relationship between field size, scatter, and magnification factor

    J. comp. Neural.

    (1974)
  • Cited by (277)

    • Animacy and the prediction of behaviour

      2022, Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
    • Information processing in aviation

      2022, Human Factors in Aviation and Aerospace, Third Edition
    • Visual Field Dependence Persists in Age-Related Central Visual Field Loss

      2024, Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science
    • Perceptual Requirements for World-Locked Rendering in AR and VR

      2023, Proceedings - SIGGRAPH Asia 2023 Conference Papers, SA 2023
    View all citing articles on Scopus

    Supported by NIH grants 5 P-30-EY-01186, 1 R01EY-03884, 1 RO1-EY03976, EY02890 USAF grant AFOSR-82-0345 and the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Foundation.

    View full text