Keywords

Motion extrapolation, time-to-contact estimations, motion dynamics, friction, motion perception

Abstract

Cognitive processing delays should cause us to respond too late when making time-to-contact estimations. According to the theory of constructivism, the brain accounts for these delays by supplementing sensory information with higher level cognitive information to create an accurate motion percept. Across the attention, memory, and motion extrapolation literatures there is evidence supporting the use of higher-level information, like motion dynamics, to supplement our visual input. Specifically, previous research suggests we may account for friction’s constraints on motion when interacting with dynamic stimuli. The current research utilizes features that represent friction as both a stopping agent and a motion catalyst to determine if friction is processed during motion extrapolation to adjust our time-to-contact estimations. Across three experiments, I investigated the impacts of rotation congruence, floor contact, and their interaction on time-to-contact estimations across multiple occlusion durations, to determine if we are perceptually sensitive to the nuanced functions of friction, and if we process them during motion extrapolation. The results primarily provide evidence against the use of friction in making time-to-contact estimations. As individual features, both rotation and floor contact may be processed during motion extrapolation, but there was no evidence to suggest the two features were processed in a gestalt-type manner when combined. Both rotation and floor contact led to later time-to-contact estimations. This finding may be due to delays associated with processing additional information, but it is possible that the later estimates associated with floor contact could be the result of processing friction as a stopping agent.

Completion Date

2025

Semester

Spring

Committee Chair

Neider, Mark

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

College of Sciences

Department

Psychology

Identifier

DP0029407

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

Campus Location

Orlando (Main) Campus

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