autokinesis

(ˌɔːtəʊkɪˈniːsɪs)

a visual illusion occurring in low light, in which a stationary bright spot appears to be moving

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

References in periodicals archive

Perfect eyes can be fooled by the illusions brought on by linear perspective, upslope, downslope, runway width, false references, repeating patterns and autokinesis. Over the course of my life I have experienced most of these, but one of them, the black-hole illusion, or black-hole approach as pilots sometimes call it, remained a mystery.

Daytime Black Holes: When landing on runways with an appreciable slope, your eyes can play tricks on you, leading to an unstabilized approach, or worse

Autokinesis, sometimes called autokinetic effect, is perceived movement exhibited by a static dim light when it is stared at in the dark.

Night flying hazards of spatial D

These include false depth perception and autokinesis, where a stationary light appears to move.

Dark departure: night flying is tricky enough when we're current. Don't mix in little recent experience and complacency

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