The maturation of global motion perception depends on the spatial and temporal offsets of the stimulus

The typical development of motion perception is commonly assessed with tests of global motion integration using random dot kinematograms. There are discrepancies, however, with respect to when typically developing children reach adult-like performance on this task, ranging from as early as 3 years to as late as 12 years. To address these discrepancies, the current study measured the effect of frame duration (triangle t) and signal dot spatial offset (triangle x) on motion coherence thresholds in adults and children. Two triangle t values were used in combination with seven triangle x values, for a range of speeds (0.3-38 deg/s). Developmental comparisons showed that for the longer At, children performed as well as adults for larger triangle x, and were immature for smaller triangle x. When parameters were expressed as speed, there was a range of intermediate speeds (4-12 deg/s) for which maturity was dependent on the values of triangle x and triangle t tested. These results resolve previous discrepancies by showing that motion sensitivity to a given speed may be mature, or not, depending on the underlying spatial and temporal properties of the motion stimulus. 0 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.