Rotational snapping: Illusory rhythmicity induced by global and local motion binding

Abstract

The complexity of human perceptual system has often been investigated through its atypical function; the illusion. Here, I introduce a new visual illusion induced by rotational motion binding, which leads to a gestalt perception of illusory object rhythmically popping out and fading away. In this illusion, observers reported non-existing rhythm out of rotating Gabor patches (e.g., local rotation) that also have orbital trajectory with opposite direction (e.g., global rotation), only under the particular combinations of parameters. This illusory rhythmicity was four times faster than the average of global/local rotational speed. Image reconstruction using the response-triggered average revealed the rhythmicity is explained by the circular alignment of array, demonstrating the effect of repeated contour integration and its perceptual consequences.