BLENDING TRANSPARENT MOTION PATTERNS IN PERIPHERAL-VISION

Human observers are very good at segmenting visual scenes consisting o f multiple moving objects, Segregation of transparent motions, however , turns out to be a predominantly central vision process. In periphera l vision transparent motions are blended to form a single novel patter n whose coherent motion corresponds to the average of the separate mot ions, whilst sensitivity to small differences in coherent motion is ma intained. These results point to distinct peripheral processing mechan isms with the advantage of being able to detect changes in motion fiel ds quickly and accurately. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.