Perceptual analysis of moving patterns.

Configurations of moving points are often perceptually analyzed into relative and common vectors that are different from the actual motions. If a movement configuration is abruptly replaced by a test point whose objective velocity continues the apparent (but illusory) course of one of the original points, observers perceive that course as uninterrupted and colinear. This finding provides a quantitative measure of the vector extraction phenomenon and was used to show that neither of the two current models adequately fits that phenomenon.