A term used to denote an illusion of movement that may occur when a moving and a stationary object are perceived simultaneously, and the moving object is mistakenly held to be the stationary one. The stationary object is then perceived as if it were moving in the opposite direction of the object that is actually moving. A well-known example of induced motion is the apparent movement of a train perceived through the window of a second train, which may induce the illusory sensation of one's own train moving in the opposite direction. Descriptions of induced motion date back as far as Antiquity. The Greek mathematician Euclid of Alexandria (325?-265? BC), for example, has been credited with providing an early description of the phenomenon. The German Gestalt psychologist Karl Duncker (1903-1940) is recognized as being the first modern author to study the subject extensively.
References
Duncker, K. (1929). Uber induzierte Bewegung (Ein Beitrag zur Theorie optisch wahrgenommener Bewegung). Physiologische Forschung, 12, 180-259.
Verstraten, F.A.J. (1996). On the ancient history of the direction of the motion aftereffect. Perception, 25, 1177-1187.
Dictionary of Hallucinations. J.D. Blom. 2010.