The Visual Persistence of a Moving Stroboscopically Illuminated Object

A time-dependent visual illusion was studied to contrast the 'perceptual moment' hypothesis with the concept of 'persistence of vision.' The experimental results were formally consistent with either concept. However, the perceptual-moment hypothesis that fits the data is one in which the duration of the 'moment' is variable and determined by stimulus properties rather than by a constant, central, neural clock--a finding which undercuts the heuristic value of the hypothesis.