Constructing surfaces and contours in displays of color from motion: The role of nearest neighbors and maximal disks

Color-from-motion displays consist of a sparse array of dots which never mo ve but change color according to various algorithms. Yet such displays can trigger human vision to construct apparent motion of a subjective surface w hich is uniformly colored and bounded by a subjective contour. We show that the perceptual strength of this construction depends on the density and re gularity of dot placement. We studied three objective measures of density a nd regularity: nearest-neighbor distance, mean of maximal disks, and varian ce of maximal disks. We found that nearest-neighbor mechanisms alone are in adequate to account for the perceptual strength of the subjective surfaces and contours. Mechanisms sensitive to areal gaps provide a more adequate ac count.