Motion Perception

Our brains perceive motion based on assumption.

Stroboscopic Movement: Continuous movement in rapid series of images (movies/animation)

Phi Phenomenon: Lights blinking on and off; appear to be a single light in motion

Real-Life Monocular Cues

Relative Size

The man appears smaller than the girl because he is further away, even though he is taller.

Linear Perspective

The wood grain pattern is more faint as the floor goes on.

Monocular Cues

Monocular cues are available to each eye separately.

Relative Size: Assuming that two objects are the same size, the object with the smaller image looks farther away.

Interposition: When one object partly obscures another, it is perceived as closer.

Relative Clarity: Fuzzy/hazy objects look farther away, clear objects look closer.

Texture Gradient: Change from coarse to fine texture increases distance.

Relative Height: Objects higher in field of vision appear farther away.

Relative Motion: When moving, still objects appear to be moving.

Linear Perspective: Parallel lines seem to come together with distance.

Light and Shadow: Close objects reflect more light.

Real life example of similarity

In this picture of a kitchen cabinet, we group the cups into those who are similar to each other rather than seeing it as rows of cups.

Real life example of continuity

In this windowpane, we see it as being made up of two vertical lines and one horizontal line rather than six squares, because seeing it as lines makes it made up of smooth and continuous lines.

Real life example of closure

In the picture of this heating vent, in the middle we see an incomplete rectangle, and, instead of seeing it as this different shape, we see it as being overlapped by the adjoining rectangle so it is complete.

Similarity

A third rule of perceptual organization is similarity. This means that we group objects in groups where they are similar to each other. Such as in the picture below, we see a cross of squares and four squares of circles rather than rows or columns of circles and squares.