Perception
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Inspection of a visual scene rotating about the vertical body axis induces a compelling sense of self rotation, or circular vection. Circular vection is suppressed by stationary objects seen beyond the moving display but not by stationary objects in the foreground. We hypothesised that stationary objects in the foreground facilitate vection because they introduce a relative-motion signal into what would otherwise be an absolute-motion signal. ⋯ The effect of stationary objects was particularly evident at low stimulus velocities. At low velocities a small stationary point significantly increased vection magnitude in spite of the fact that, at higher stimulus velocities and with other stationary objects in view, fixation on a stationary point, if anything, reduced vection. Changing the position of the stationary objects in the field of view did not affect vection latencies or magnitudes.