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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1996 Apr 16;93(8):3693–3697. doi: 10.1073/pnas.93.8.3693

The wagon wheel illusion in movies and reality.

D Purves 1, J A Paydarfar 1, T J Andrews 1
PMCID: PMC39674  PMID: 8622999

Abstract

Wheels turning in the movies or in other forms of stroboscopic presentation often appear to be rotating backward. Remarkably, a similar illusion is also seen in continuous light. The occurrence of this perception in the absence of intermittent illumination suggests that we normally see motion, as in movies, by processing a series of visual episodes.

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Selected References

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