Persistence of vision

:This article is about the theory on human vision. For other uses of the term Persistence of vision, see Persistence of vision (disambiguation).

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According to the theory of persistence of vision, the perceptual processes of the brain or the retina of the human eye retains an image for a split second. This theory supposedly accounts for the fact that when a motion picture flashes a series of progressive images, instead of the mind seeing the flashing of a series of images, it sees the illusion of motion.

Related Topics:
Brain - Retina - Human - Eye

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Psychologists and physiologists have abandoned this theory's applicability to film viewership, though film textbooks, film professors, and film theorists have largely not.

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Persistence of vision should be compared with the related phenomena of beta movement and phi movement. A critical part of understanding these visual perception phenomena is that the eye is not a video camera: there is no "frame rate" or "scan rate" in the eye: instead, the eye/brain system has a combination of motion detectors, detail detectors and pattern detectors, the outputs of all of which are combined to create the visual experience.

Related Topics:
Beta movement - Phi movement - Visual perception

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The frequency at which flicker becomes invisible is called the flicker fusion threshold, and is dependent on the level of illumination.

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