A direct demonstration of perceptual asynchrony in vision

Abstract

We have addressed the question of whether, in addition to being processed separately, colour and motion are also perceived separately. We varied continuously the colour and direction of motion of an abstract pattern of squares on a computer screen, and asked subjects to pair the colour of the pattern to its direction of motion. The results showed that subjects misbind the colour and the direction of motion because colour and motion are perceived separately and at different times, colour being perceived first. Hence the brain binds visual attributes that are perceived together, rather than ones that occur together in real time.