What was the design of David Lee's experimental demonstration of vection?

David Lee's experimental demonstration of vection involved placing subjects in a false room with moving walls. This design was crucial because it allowed researchers to create an artificial environment where visual stimuli could lead to the perception of self-motion, even when the subjects were stationary. Vection refers to the sensation of self-motion induced by visual cues, which can occur when the surrounding visual field moves while the participant remains still.

By using a setup with moving walls, Lee could effectively manipulate the visual environment to elicit this feeling of motion, thereby demonstrating how visual input influences our perception of movement. The use of a false room was essential to ensuring that participants were not actually moving, as the experiment aimed to isolate the effects of visual motion on the sensation of movement. This design allowed for a clear investigation into the mechanisms of vection without confounding factors that might occur in more dynamic settings.