Illusions of visual orientation: comparisons between perceptual and visuo-motor tasks

Abstract

The Milner and Goodale (1995) model of dual cortical visual systems suggests that, in the primate cortex, separate neural substrates dominate the tasks of visual perception and visuo-motor control. This model derives from a number of independent sources of evidence: anatomical, physiological and behavioural. Neuropsychological evidence in humans suggests that visual perception and visuo-motor control can be selectively impaired through damage to the ventral and dorsal visual streams respectively. Evidence has emerged that in the healthy human visual cortex, differentiable effects of visual illusions can be found between the two measures of perception and visuo- motor control. This evidence has been cited to support the Milner and Goodale (1995) model. The series of studies reported in this dissertation used a similar, but methodologically revised application of the illusion paradigm in the novel domain of orientation. Using two types of visual illusions, the simultaneous tilt illusion (STI) and the rod-and-frame illusion (RFI), a series of studies found patterns of association, dissociation and interaction that strongly support the Mihier and Goodale model. The critical issue, in terms of predicting the pattern of effects across perception and visuo-motor control tasks, was found to be the siting of the causal mechanisms underlying the illusion employed.