The motion-induced position shift depends on the visual awareness of motion

Visual motion signals distort the perceived positions of briefly presented stimuli; a briefly-flashed, stationary stimulus appears spatially displaced in the direction of a nearby motion. The present study examined the role of the visual awareness of motion in the motion-induced position shift by using exclusive dominance and suppression of binocular rivalry. Observers dichoptically viewed a flickering radial checkerboard and two sinusoidal gratings that drifted vertically in opposite directions. When observers viewed exclusively either the checkerboard or motion stimulus, two horizontal lines were flashed, one for each side of the rivalry stimulus. During the exclusive dominance of the grating motion, the lines appeared to shift in the directions of the nearby motions. The position shift was identical to that during non-rivalry, monocular viewing of the motion stimulus. However, when the grating motions were completely suppressed, no position shift was observed. These results demonstrate that the motion-induced position shift depends on the visual awareness of motion.