Perceived duration of visual motion increases with speed

Despite wide recognition that a moving object is perceived to last longer, scientists do not yet agree as to how this illusion occurs. In the present study, we conducted two experiments using two experimental methods, namely duration matching and reproduction, and systematically manipulated the temporal frequency, spatial frequency, and speed of the stimulus, to identify the determinant factor of the illusion. Our results indicated that the speed of the stimulus, rather than temporal frequency or spatial frequency per se, best described the perceived duration of a moving stimulus, with the apparent duration proportionally increasing with log speed (Experiments 1 and 2). However, in an additional experiment, we found little or no change in onset and offset reaction times for moving stimuli (Experiment 3). Arguing that speed information is made explicit in higher stages of visual information processing in the brain, we suggest that this illusion is primarily mediated by higher level motion processing stages in the dorsal pathway.