A common theoretical framework for visual motion´s spatial and temporal coherence

A recently proposed computational theory for the perception of spatially coherent visual motion (see A.L. Yuille et al., 1988) is extended to include temporal coherence . Particularly, it is argued that a good extension is to postulate that the direction of visual motion does not change much in time. The extended theory is consistent with the psychophysical phenomena of motion capture, motion cooperativity, nonrigid wave motion, and motion inertia. The authors also discuss the possible roles of coherence for motion perception. It is shown that spatial coherence improves the signal-to-noise ratio of the perceived motion, solves the aperture problem, and simplifies the correspondence problem. Temporal coherence also simplifies the correspondence problem and speeds up its solution