Our ability to perceive motion plays very important functions than we give it credit for.
How?
I was moving about a lot yesterday and took out time to watch birds do their thing and cars play speed games on the road when i began to think about motion.
It is easy to think 'people are moving, so?', 'what's special about it?'
Truth is, it is a special ability and I'll tell you why.
Let's examine the case of a 43year old woman who lost her ability to perceive motion as a result of damage caused by a stroke tp the area of the cortex responsible for motion perception. It made it difficult for her to pour tea into a cup. As simple as this activity is. The liquid freezes as she pours it and she can't perceive the rise of the liquid and so doesn't know when to stop pouring.
What she suffers from is called Motion Agnosia and right now I'm sure you are glad you don't have it.
Alright then, let's go through some of the functions of motion and see how imperative it is to survival-cause it is- but first, we need to know when exactly we perceive motion.
Real Motion is the actual motion of an object such as when a car moves or a fly tries to window shop round your head.
Illusory Motion on the other hand is the perception of motion when there is actually none. A good example of this, which i find interesting is the apparent motion.
Apparent Motion is the perception of motion when two stimuli at slightly different locations are alternated within a correct timing. An example is a display sign. You perceive the words are moving but they actually are not.
What Motion Allows You do
- Helps you understand events in your environment
As you walk through the mall, looking at the different goods on display, you also observe the couple having a conversation at one corner, the child running down the hall, movement on a screen that informs you of a movie is being shown.
Much of what you observe is informed by motion really.
- Motion attracts attention
The ability of motion to capture attention is known as attentional capture.
So you are in a crowd looking for your friend and he or she begins to wave her hands. That waving of hand gets your attention.
We both know know searching through the crowd might have cost you a lot more time without that simple motion.
It is what also helps you when a dangerous animal strolls by. Then you realise it about time you ran.
*It helps provide information about objects
In a stationary position, you are not likely to see the world in its wholeness. You see just an angle of it.
Your ability to move allows you view the world in 3D which, in my opinion, is way better than a 2D experience.
So maybe with this you would appreciate things around you more, be more sensitive to it all.
Our eyes are the windows to our soul. It is amazing in the things it allows us do.
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