Data from: What makes motion dazzle markings effective against predation?

Motion dazzle markings comprise patterns such as stripes and zig-zags that
are postulated to protect moving prey by making predators misjudge the
prey’s speed or trajectory. Recent experiments have provided conflicting
results on their effect on speed perception and attack success. We focus
on motion dazzle stripes and investigate the influence of four parameters
– stripe orientation, stripe contrast, target size, and target speed – on
perceived speed and attack success using a common experimental paradigm
involving human ‘predators’ attacking virtual moving targets on a computer
touchscreen. We found high contrast stripes running parallel or
perpendicular to the direction of motion reduce attack success compared to
conspicuous uniform targets. Surprisingly, parallel stripes induced
underestimation of speed, while perpendicular stripes induced
overestimation of speed in relation to uniform black, suggesting that
misjudgment of speed per se is sufficient to reduce attack accuracy.
Across all the experiments, we found some support for parallel stripes
inducing underestimation of target speed but these stripes reduced attack
success only when targets were small, moved at an intermediate speed and
had high internal contrast. We suggest that prey features (e.g., size or
speed) are an important determinant of capture success and that distortion
of speed perception by a color pattern does not necessarily translate to
reduced capture success of the prey. Overall, our results support the idea
that striped patterns in prey animals can reduce capture in motion but are
effective under a limited set of conditions.