VSS Poster: An illusion of opposite-direction motion

At the 2018 VSS meeting, Gi-Yeul Bae will be presenting a poster describing a motion illusion that, as far as we can tell, has never before been reported even though it has been "right under the noses" of many researchers.  As shown in the video below, this illusion arises in the standard "random dot kinematogram" displays that have been used to study motion perception for decades. In the standard task, the motion is either leftward or rightward. However, we allowed the dots to move in any direction in the 360° space, and the task was to report the exact direction at the end of the trial.

In the example video, the coherence level is 25% on some trials and 50% on others (i.e., on average, 25% or 50% of the dots move in one direction, and the other dots move randomly). A line appears at the end of the trial to indicate the direction of motion for that trial.  When you watch a given trial, try to guess the precise direction of motion.  If you are like most people, you will find that you guess a direction that is approximately 180° away from the true direction on a substantial fraction of trials.  You may even see the motion start in one direction and then reverse to the true direction. We recommend that you maximize the video and view it in HD.

In the controlled laboratory experiments described in our poster (which you can download here), we find that 180° errors are much more common than other errors. In addition, our studies suggest that this is a bona fide illusion, in which people confidently perceive a direction of motion that is the opposite of the true direction. If you know of any previous reports of this phenomenon, let us know!