Impressions of enforced disintegration and bursting in the visual perception of collision events.

Abstract

In 3 experiments, computer-generated visual stimuli were shown to give rise to visual impressions that 1 object smashed or was smashed by another, and that an object popped or exploded on contact from another object. These are termed the enforced disintegration and bursting impressions, respectively. Impressions of enforced disintegration were found to be strongest when speed of motion after contact was the same as or slightly less than speed before contact and when the fragments of the contacted object were widely dispersed in an arc centred on the original direction of motion. Impressions of bursting were strongest when speed of motion after contact was faster than speed before contact. These visual interaction impressions may be accounted for by innate visual mechanisms, by the use of acquired knowledge in a process akin to recognition, or by the application of primitive conceptual knowledge in perceptual processing.