Wayfinding on Foot From Information in Retinal, Not Optical, Flow

People find their way through cluttered environments with ease and without injury. How do they do it? Two approaches to wayfinding are considered: Differential motion parallax (DMP) is a retinal motion invariant of near and far objects moving against fixation; the information in optical flow (IOF) i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of experimental psychology. General 1992-03, Vol.121 (1), p.41-72
Main Authors: Cutting, James E, Springer, Ken, Braren, Paul A, Johnson, Scott H
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Attention - physiology
Biological and medical sciences
Distance Perception - physiology
Eyes & eyesight
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Gait - physiology
Human
Humans
Male
Motion Perception
Motion Perception - physiology
Orientation - physiology
Perception
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Psychophysics
Reaction Time - physiology
Retina
Retina - physiology
Social Environment
Social research
Space life sciences
Spatial Orientation (Perception)
Vision
Visual Perception
Wayfinding
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Summary:People find their way through cluttered environments with ease and without injury. How do they do it? Two approaches to wayfinding are considered: Differential motion parallax (DMP) is a retinal motion invariant of near and far objects moving against fixation; the information in optical flow (IOF) is a radial pattern of vectors, relying on decomposition of retinal flow. Evidence is presented that DMP guides wayfinding during natural gait, accounting for errors as well as correct responses. Evidence against IOF is also presented, and a space-time aliasing artifact that can contaminate IOF displays is explored. Finally, DMP and IOF are separated, showing they can yield different results in different environments. Thus, it is concluded that (a) DMP and IOF are different, (b) DMP and not IOF is used for wayfinding, (c) moving observers do not usually decompose retinal flow, and (d) optical flow may be a mathematical fiction with no psychological reality.
ISSN:0096-3445
1939-2222
DOI:10.1037/0096-3445.121.1.41