Masking of motion by broadband and filtered directional noise

Observers detected unidirectional motion of isotropic dotpatterns following exposure to (1) broadband noise containing all directions of motion, or (2) noise from which certain sets of direction had been filtered. The amount of maskingvaried withtheset of directions filtered from the noise, yielding broad directional tuning functions. The breadth of an observers’s tuning function corresponded to the precision with which the observer could recognize small differences in direction of motion.