Stephen replied to me off list about my post on this question. As I more carefully reread the information on that site I see that he is correct and the site only addresses stroboscopic conditions. I admit that I was distracted by thoughts of planning my new course in Human Sexuality.
Here is a much better source for the answer to the question. http://www.pnas.org/cgi/reprint/93/8/3693.pdf This site has a paper that was published in the Proceedings for the National Academy of Sciences in 1996 by Purves, Paydarfar, & Andrews. It does contain the ideas that I had projected onto the other web page. Here is the conclusion for that paper: "The illusion of wheels or other radial patterns rotating backward in continuous light, together with the perception of supernumerary spokes, suggests that the human visual system processes sequential episodes of information rather than a continuous temporal flow. In addition to accounting for this remarkable illusion, a strategy of vision that parses the world in this way can explain why movies are so realistic (simply because that is the way we normally see things) and how we detect motion (by comparing the position of the same objects in sequential episodes)." I hope this one really does help. Dennis On 1 Apr 2004, Dennis Goff wrote: > Tom, > Take a look at > http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/gen01/gen01404.htm. Be sure to > read both answers. The first answers indicates that the illusion won't > happen under steady lighting. The second answer indicates how the > illusion could happen under that condition. Hope it helps Dennis > I've looked at the webpage you cited. But I don't see anything in the second answer which explains how the illusion can happen under steady lighting. Perhaps you're referring to the last sentence. But that sentence refers to a special case when two mesh screens are superimposed, and doesn't have anything to do with seeing the wagon wheel effect under steady illumination. Or did I miss something? Regards Stephen --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
