Effects of Distance Cues on Perceived Speed of Self-motion from Optic Flow

Abstract

We examined as to whether adding distance information increases accuracy of perceived self-motion speed from radial flow. To do this, we varied richness of pictorial distance cues in the radial flow stimulus. Moreover, by presenting the stimulus in central or peripheral visual field, we analyzed the dependency of retinal region of stimulation on perceived speed of self-motion for different richness of pictorial cues. The results showed that the dependency of retinal region was decreased with increasing richness of pictorial cues. This indicates that pictorial cues increase accuracy of perceived self-motion speed. In addition, we explored the effects of the stimulus distance, and found that the dependency of retinal region was similar between different stimulus distances.