Document Type

Article

Publication Date

January 2002

Publication Title

Perception

Volume

31

Issue Number

8

First Page

943

Last Page

954

DOI

10.1068/p3294

Keywords

Perceived, internal depth, rotating objects, translating objects

Disciplines

Psychology

Abstract

Previous research has indicated that observers use differences between velocities and ratios of velocities to judge the depth within a moving object, although depth cannot in general be determined from these quantities. In four experiments we examined the relative effects of velocity difference and velocity ratio on judged depth within a transparent object that was rotating about a vertical axis and translating horizontally, examined the effects of the velocity difference for pure rotations and pure translations, and examined the effect of the velocity difference for objects that varied in simulated internal depth. Both the velocity difference and the velocity ratio affected judged depth, with difference having the larger effect. The effect of velocity difference was greater for pure rotations than for pure translations. Simulated depth did not affect judged depth unless there was a corresponding change in the projected width of the object. Observers appear to use the velocity difference, the velocity ratio, and the projected width of the object heuristically to judge internal object depth, rather than using image information from which relative depth could potentially be recovered.

Comments

Copyright © 2002 Pion Ltd..The definitive, peer-reviewed and edited version of this article is published in Perception, volume 31, issue 8, pages 943-954, 2002, http://dx.doi.org/10.1068/p3294.

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