Colour and polarity contributions to global motion perception.

The influence of the image segmentation cues based on colour and polarity on a motion coherence task were examined. In line with previous reports, when the signal and noise were given unique identities thresholds were much lower than when they were the same, suggesting a strong influence of segmentation. In another paradigm extra noise elements that differed in colour or polarity interfered despite this perceptual segmentation. We suggest that the results when signal and noise have unique identities are attributable to the subjects' ability to attend to a particular location(s) in space. When this strategy was eliminated by presenting the stimuli in the near-periphery or very briefly the effect of the colour or polarity information disappears.