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Abstract

Motion-induced illusory displacement occurs when local motion within an object causes its perceived global position to appear shifted. Using two different paradigms, we explored whether active control of the physical position of the object can overcome this illusion. In Experiment 1, we created a simple joystick game in which participants guided a Gabor patch along a randomly curving path. In Experiment 2, participants used the accelerometer-based tilt control of the iPad to guide a Gabor patch through a series of discrete gates, as might be found on a slalom course. In both experiments, participants responded to local motion with overcompensating movements in the opposite direction, leading to systematic errors. These errors scaled with speed but did not vary in magnitude either within or across trials. In conclusion, we found no evidence that participants could adapt or compensate for illusory displacement given active control of the target.