Department of Psychology, Chiba University Chiba, Japan.
Front Psychol. 2013 Mar 14;4:120. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00120. eCollection 2013.
Four experiments investigated how observers' consciousness about their control of stimulus change affects the visual perception associated with the illusory flash-lag effect. In previous study (Ichikawa and Masakura, 2006), we found that the flash-lag effect in motion is reduced if observers were conscious that they were controlling stimulus movements by the use of computer mouse, even if the stimulus moved automatically, independently of observer's mouse control. In the other study (Ichikawa and Masakura, 2010a), we found that the consistent directional relationship between the observer's mouse control and stimulus movement, which is learned in our everyday computer use, is important for the reduction of the flash-lag effect in active observation. In the present study, we examined whether the reduction of the flash-lag effect in active observation requires the observers' consciousness about their control of stimulus change, and consistency in coupling mouse movement direction and stimulus change across trials in experiments. We used the flash-lag effect in luminance change because there is no intrinsic relationship between observer's mouse control and luminance change in our everyday computer use. We compared the illusory flash-lag effects for automatic change of the luminance with luminance change that was controlled by the observers' active manipulation of a computer mouse. Because the flash occurs randomly in time, observers could not anticipate when the flash was presented. Results suggest that the not only observer's consciousness of controlling the stimulus, but also consistency in coupling mouse movement direction with stimulus change, are required for the reduction of the flash-lag effect in active observation. The basis of the reduction of the flash-lag effect in active observation is discussed.
四个实验研究了观察者对其控制刺激变化的意识如何影响与错觉闪烁滞后效应相关的视觉感知。在之前的研究（Ichikawa 和 Masakura，2006）中，我们发现如果观察者意识到他们正在通过使用计算机鼠标控制刺激运动，即使刺激是自动移动的，独立于观察者的鼠标控制，那么运动中的闪烁滞后效应会减小。在另一项研究（Ichikawa 和 Masakura，2010a）中，我们发现观察者鼠标控制和刺激运动之间的一致方向关系，这是我们在日常计算机使用中学习到的，对于减少主动观察中的闪烁滞后效应很重要。在本研究中，我们检验了在主动观察中减少闪烁滞后效应是否需要观察者意识到他们对刺激变化的控制，以及在实验中跨试验保持鼠标运动方向和刺激变化的一致性。我们使用亮度变化的闪烁滞后效应，因为在我们的日常计算机使用中，观察者的鼠标控制和亮度变化之间没有内在关系。我们比较了自动改变亮度的错觉闪烁滞后效应与观察者通过主动操作计算机鼠标控制的亮度变化。由于闪光是随机出现的，观察者无法预测何时会出现闪光。结果表明，观察者不仅需要意识到控制刺激，而且需要在鼠标运动方向和刺激变化之间保持一致，才能减少主动观察中的闪烁滞后效应。讨论了减少主动观察中闪烁滞后效应的基础。
