Attentional Modulation of Mechanisms That Analyze Rotation in Depth

Three experiments are reported which indicate that a 3-dimensional motion aftereffect can be attentionally modulated. Previous work has shown that following adaptation to a square in a polar projection rotating in depth left or right, a square in parallel projection with a normally ambiguous direction of rotation is seen to rotate opposite the adapting direction (Petersik, Shepard, & Malsch, 1984). In the present experiments, 2 adapting squares are presented, rotating in opposite directions. Attention to each square is controlled by asking subjects to detect perturbations in the dots that define one or the other square. Responses to the subsequent test stimulus depend on which square is attended. A quantitative model is introduced, and some implications of the model are tested.