Abstract
The conducted experimental study is devoted to the verification of theoretical assumption about the role of time in human visual perception of the spatial extent. This assumption is associated with the sequential formation of relations between individual discrete time instants of visual process and, in particular, can explain the special phenomena of perception of short-term display of objects that vary in size at a fairly high speed. It is usually impossible for these stimuli with a speed of resizing up to 15 visual deg/s to clearly see the start of the process, while the final position of the object can be observed regardless of the direction of resizing. Moreover, the theoretical model of the formation of temporal relations also indicated the possibility of the appearance of a reversed vision effect of the initial and final positions of stimuli, decreasing in size at speeds of 15-40 deg/s. Their initial position can be observed, and the final position can be seen worse, possibly due to the later establishment of spatial symmetrical relations for the initial case. This effect was shown in our experiments earlier for contour shapes (high-contrast outline drawings of polygons) that vary in size 7-12 degrees and was recorded in submitted experiments using modern computer equipment (including G-Sync monitor with 240 Hz refresh rate, mean frame time 4.2 ms, s.d. 0.02) and special experiment software based on PsychoPy. A higher rate of resizing (up to 55 deg/s and more) leads to a peculiar freezing of all presented frames of the contour object in the form of barely appearing lines, while the global sense of expansion or contraction of size in time stands out separately. This is possibly due to the fact that consistent relationships in time do not have time to form outside the dynamic functional range of human vision.