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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 16, 2026

Methods to Explore the Influence of Top-down Visual Processes on Motor Behavior

Methods to Explore the Influence of Top-down Visual Processes on Motor Behavior

Published on: April 16, 2014

The visual attractor illusion.

Tal Makovski¹, Khena M Swallow, Yuhong V Jiang

¹Department of Psychology and Center for Cognitive Sciences, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, MN 55455, USA. tal.makovski@gmail.com

Journal of Vision

|February 11, 2010

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

A new visual attractor illusion demonstrates that nearby objects can shift perceived location. This effect, influenced by attention and object transients, alters spatial perception.

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Area of Science:

Visual perception
Cognitive psychology
Neuroscience

Background:

Perceived object features are often influenced by surrounding objects.
Nearby static objects can enhance the perceived spatial location of a target object.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate a novel visual illusion where a static object alters the perceived location of a target object.
To explore the role of attention and visual transients in this "visual attractor illusion".

Main Methods:

Participants localized the edge of a briefly presented and masked target object.
Localization accuracy was compared between isolated targets and targets presented with a nearby "attractor" object.
The influence of task-relevance and experimental progression on the illusion was assessed.

Main Results:

Target localization deviated toward the attractor object when presented nearby.
The visual attractor illusion was stronger for task-relevant attractors.
The illusion diminished over time, indicating attentional modulation.
The illusion depended on the sudden onset of the attractor and backward masking of the target.

Conclusions:

The presence of a static object can distort perceptual space, drawing in the perceived location of a neighboring object.
Attention and visual transients significantly modulate the visual attractor illusion.
Perceptual localization may be weighted toward concurrently presented visual transients.