Abstract
For more than a hundred years (e.g., Breese, 1899; Grindley & Townsend, 1965; Blake et al., 1998), it was reported that motion wins over a static object in binocular competition. Here we show a striking deviation from this principle: in the first second of the interocular competition between a static (or slow) field with a fast field, the static field dominates the center, while the fast motion persists along the borders of the stimulus. This effect cannot be explained in terms of eccentricity, as it held when the rivaling stimuli were presented peripherally. Additionally, the central portion of the static/slow field scaled with the size of the stimuli (i.e., the slow-center/fast-surround ratio remained at ~4/5th of the radius). Furthermore, this phenomenon is time-locked to the onset of the static stimulus. This transient central perceptual bias toward static stimuli reveals the importance of two factors typically overlooked in binocular rivalry and interocular suppression studies: the time course of interocular competition, and relative spatial positions of target and mask.
Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2017