Motion is perceived in the direction away from the cue.
The effect may reflect transient attentional activation triggered reflexively by the cue onset. In this study we examined the time course of the illusion at a cue to which attention was allocated deliberately, rather than in a stimulus-driven manner. While maintaining fixation, observers searched for a target cue defined by a unique conjunction of colour and orientation among irrelevant equiluminant distractors sharing the same features. Observers reported the direction of perceived motion within a horizontal bar which interrupted search at different delays, appearing in the middle between two randomly chosen cues. Because equivalent cues primed the bar from both sides, the direction of motion was balanced unless one of the cues was selected.