Balz, Gunther William

A row of dots is presented in a series of alternating frames; dots in each frame are located at the midpoints between dots of the preceding frame. Although the perceived frame-to-frame direction of motion could vary randomly, cooperativity is indicated by the emergence of two coherent motion patterns, one unidirectional, the other oscillatory. Small increases in the time between frames are sufficient for the bias, which maintains the previously established motion direction (unidirectional motion), to be reversed, becoming a bias which inhibits that direction (oscillatory motion). Unidirectional motion, which predominates for small dot separations, and oscillatory motion, which predominates for large separations, are associated with short-range and long-range motion (Braddick, 1974) by manipulating the shape of the dots, their luminance, and the luminance of the inter-frame blank field. Pulsing/flicker emerges as a third perceptual state that competes with unidirectional motion for very small dot separations.

When perceivers examine a visual scene, they can control the extent to which their attention is either narrowly focused or spread over a larger spatial area. The experiments reported in this dissertation explore the consequences of narrow vs. broad attention for simple spatial discriminations as well as more complex cooperative interactions that are the basis for the self-organization of coherent motion patterns. Subjects' attentional spread (narrow or broad) is manipulated by means of a primary, luminance detection task. In conjunction with the luminance detection task is a secondary, spatial discrimination or detection task, which differs in the four reported experiments. In Experiment 1, the discrimination of misalignment of two visual elements is enhanced by narrowly focused attention. In Experiment 2, discrimination of horizontal spatial separation of two visual elements is improved for small inter-element distances by narrow attention and for relatively large inter-element distances by broad attention. Experiment 3 shows that the inter-element distance among counterphase-presented visual elements for which unidirectional and oscillatory motion patterns are observed with equal frequency depends on subjects' attentional spread. Narrow attention favors the oscillatory pattern and broad attention favors the unidirectional pattern. Experiment 4 shows that attentional spread has a minimal effect on the detection of motion, and, additionally that attentional effects on simple spatial judgments (Experiments 1 and 2) are too small to account for the large shift in the equi-probable boundary of reported unidirectional and oscillatory motion patterns found in Experiment 3. Therefore, it is concluded in conjunction with Hock and Balz's (1994) differential gradient model, that attentional spread influences the self-organization of unidirectional and oscillatory motion patterns through its effects on the relative strength of facilitating and inhibiting interactions among directionally selective motion detectors.