Visual Processing of Object Velocity and Acceleration.
Abstract
Human observers have difficulty detecting acceleration in a moving visual image. If observers are shown two briefly-presented (100 msec) moving targets, one after the other, they can learn to discriminate a 6% difference in their velocities. If instead, a single target is presented moving at one velocity (reference velocity), which abruptly changes to a new velocity of 100 msec, and then returns to the initial velocity, a difference of 6% is virtually undetectable. Even when a jerk or perturbation in the trajectory is detected, observers frequently have difficulty saying whether the target increased or decreased its velocity. In short, the reference velocity is masking the incremental change. A number of experiments were performed to explore the influence of velocity, spatial extent, and trajectory discontinuities on masking effect. Keywords: Target recognition; Target discrimination; Moving target indicators.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 06, 1986
- Accession Number
- ADA187943
Entities
People
- Suzanne P. Mckee