The autokinetic effect corresponds to an optical illusion. When a static light stimulus is delivered in an otherwise monochromatically dark environment, humans lack reference points for judging the localization and motion of the light spot. This creates the impression that the static stimulus is moving in the environment.
What is the autokinetic effect?
Human visual perception is not free from error. The autokinetic effect is one of these errors; it corresponds to an optical illusion. Human visual perception is not free of errors. Optical illusions, for example, illustrate how error-ridden perception is. One of them is known as the autokinetic effect. Due to this effect, people perceive a fixed light source or briefly presented light points in a stationary position in an otherwise completely dark environment as moving points. Both the direction and the width of the perceived motion can vary considerably. The autokinetic effect is difficult to comprehend from an objective point of view. When it occurs, it is a purely subjective illusion phenomenon at that moment. You can experience it, for example, when you look into the starry sky and fix one of the stars in it. It seems as if it would move slightly. The autokinetic effect is based on the fact that the visual perception of motion always occurs with respect to a specific reference point, and this reference point is ultimately absent in a dark environment.
Function and task
Humans are capable of perceiving motion. He is one of the eye-controlled creatures. Especially the visual perception of movements has been essential for him from an evolutionary biological point of view to survive in his environment. Moving stimuli were more likely to be judged as dangerous and therefore attracted more attention. In the autokinetic effect, the distinction between moving and stationary stimulus sources fails. Humans always perceive moving and stationary stimuli with respect to a reference point in the field of view. This reference point can be, for example, a definitely static building. If, however, the background is uniformly stimulus-poor, there are no suitable reference points for differentiating between moving and stationary. Thus, when a light stimulus is emitted in such an environment, its motion can hardly be estimated. Only in an environment with reference points is the position of the light point itself definitely anchored. Against a stimulus-poor and uniformly dark background, a stationary light stimulus therefore looks as if it is moving, because its position cannot be perceived as definitely fixed without a reference point. This phenomenon corresponds to the autokinetic effect. In addition, speculation suggests that involuntary eye movements in the sense of microsaccades also contribute to the phenomenon. These microsaccades permanently shift light to new receptors of the retina, since completely static light stimuli elude visual perception. Especially during fatigue, strong micromovements of the eyes occur, which sometimes play a role in the autokinetic effect. However, the micro-movements of the eyes cannot be equated one-to-one with the experienced movements of the light stimuli. The autokinetic effect plays a special role for pilots on night flights. During night flight, they may have to correctly classify and localize individual points of light in a monochromatic black environment, such as static lights on the ground or those of stars. Because of the autokinetic effect, they may mistake the static lights in their environment for the lights of another aircraft. This threatens safety in that they may want to correct the apparent collision course with the point of light.
Illness and discomfort
The autokinetic effect has no disease value. It is an optical illusion that occurs on the basis of natural perceptual processes. Whether the autokinetic effect occurs with the same intensity in people with paralysis of the eye muscles as in healthy people remains an unanswered question. Since the micro-movements of the eyes seem to contribute to the effect, people with a failure of these micro-movements would be largely immune to this sensory illusion.Because the perceived movement of the light points have no objective basis, the autokinetic effect is suitable for the study of psychological opinion formation. Such studies were conducted by Muzafer Sherif in 1935 in group experiments. In his study, the study participants had to subjectively judge the movement of lights and communicate their judgment in the group context. At a certain point in time, the perceptions of the study participants coincided. This seems to confirm an opinion-forming influence of group constellations. The study is often mentioned in connection with group pressure in opinion-forming processes.
