THE BACKWARD MISLOCATION OF A MOVING OBJECT STARTING POINT IS DEPENDING ON VELOCITY

Abstract

Deviations of the judged from the actual moving target onset (starting point, SP) have been reported both in- and opposite to- the direction of motion, but it is still not clear under which conditions the perceived SP is mislocalized back or forth. To solve this ambiguity we changed the typical experimental paradigm to obtain an estimation of SP as much accurate as possible. The method of constant stimuli was used and a cue was displayed before target onset, remaining on the monitor as a reference-system. Two velocities (2.23 and 11.13 cm/s) were used for a horizontal motion (two directions). An effect of velocity was found: the magnitude of the backward mislocation was larger with the slower velocity, whereas for the faster one the error was near to zero.