Differences in perceived travel distance from central versus peripheral optic flow are the same when standing and walking

Ambika Bansal, Hongyi Guo, Robert S. Allison, Laurence R. Harris · 2026

Read Differences in perceived travel distance from central versus peripheral optic flow are the same when standing and walking by Ambika Bansal, Hongyi Guo, Robert S. Allison, Laurence R. Harris (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13155601.txt.

Description

Ambika Bansal and co-authors ran a 2026 study on how people judge travel distance from optic flow, the rush of sights as we move. Past work with seated people found that flow at the edge of vision feels like a longer trip than the same flow in the center. The team asked whether walking changes that effect.

People took part while standing still, while walking blindfolded on a treadmill, and while walking with the moving display. A wide edgeless screen made them feel they were moving through space. The gap between center and edge flow stayed the same across all three setups. Body cues from walking did not shift the visual effect.

Catalog record

CREATORAmbika Bansal, Hongyi Guo, Robert S. Allison, Laurence R. Harris
YEAR2026
COLLECTIONPAPERS
FORMATTXT
FILE SIZE36 KB
VERSION1.0
LICENSECC BY 4.0
RIGHTSCC BY
SOURCEEurope PMC

Source: https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13155601

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