Lovell P George, Sharman Rebecca J, Meese Tim S
Division of Psychology & Forensic Sciences, Abertay University, Bell Street, Dundee DD1 1HG, UK.
Centre for Vision & Hearing Research, Aston University, Aston Street, Birmingham B4 7ET, UK.
R Soc Open Sci. 2024 Dec 4;11(12):240624. doi: 10.1098/rsos.240624. eCollection 2024 Dec.
During WWI, ships were painted in high-contrast 'dazzle' patterns believed to distort, among other things, submariners' perceptions of direction when aiming their torpedoes, but was this strategy effective? Here, we investigated the effects of different camouflage patterns, including versions used in the war, on the perceived direction of travel for a three-dimensional computer model of the RMS Mauretania. The results of this study showed that texture gradients 'twisted' the perceived direction of the ship, the effect being ~10° for a regular pattern of circles. We also found a second, larger effect, 'hysteresis', that biased perceived target directions to parallel the horizon for directions of travel within approximately ±30° of 90° (left-right). Hysteresis persisted outside this central plateau, causing perceived directions to be offset from veridical. The twist and hysteresis effects combined linearly and were constructive (enhancing protection) or destructive (diminishing protection) depending on the directions of (i) travel and (ii) the 'twisting' texture gradients. However, the strength of hysteresis reduced as a function of experience. Our simulated torpedo attacks suggest that systematic perceptual distortion of direction by dazzle might have been effective only where submariners had low hysteresis and ships were fast enough to benefit from the perceptual error imposed by twist.
在第一次世界大战期间，船只被漆上高对比度的“迷惑”图案，人们认为这种图案除了其他作用外，还会在潜艇艇员发射鱼雷时扭曲他们对方向的感知，但这种策略有效吗？在这里，我们研究了不同伪装图案（包括战争中使用的版本）对 RMS 毛里塔尼亚号三维计算机模型的行进方向感知的影响。这项研究的结果表明，纹理梯度会“扭曲”对船的行进方向感知，对于规则的圆形图案，这种影响约为 10°。我们还发现了第二个更大的影响，即“滞后”，它使感知到的目标方向偏向与地平线平行，适用于在 90°（左右）约±30°范围内的行进方向。在这个中心区域之外，滞后现象仍然存在，导致感知方向偏离真实方向。扭曲和滞后效应呈线性组合，并且根据（i）行进方向和（ii）“扭曲”纹理梯度的方向，它们可能是建设性的（增强保护）或破坏性的（削弱保护）。然而，滞后的强度会随着经验的增加而降低。我们模拟的鱼雷攻击表明，只有在潜艇艇员滞后较低且船只速度足够快以受益于扭曲造成的感知误差的情况下，迷惑图案对方向的系统性感知扭曲才可能有效。
