The effect of vertical angular subtense on perception of slant from horizontal size disparity

The slant from horizontal size disparity is geometrically predictable. The apparent slant, however, is usually not equivalent to the prediction as numerous visual factors affect it. The aim of this study is to examine whether the vertical angular subtense of a stimulus with horizontal size disparity alters the magnitude of perceived slant for a given horizontal angular subtense. The results indicate that a smaller angular subtense of display produces a smaller magnitude of slant perception.     

The Effect of Exposure Duration on Stereopsis and Its Dependency on Spatial Frequency

To investigate the effect of exposure duration on stereopsis and its spatial frequency dependency, we measured disparity threshold for the depth discrimination varying stimulus exposure duration between 0.05 and 2 s for three spatial frequencies (0.23, 0.94 and 3.75 c/deg). The results showed that disparity threshold decreased with increase in exposure duration up to a certain duration, beyond which it was approximately constant (the duration is called critical duration). The critical duration was about 150 ms for gratings with low and middle spatial frequencies (0.23 and 0.94 c/deg) while the duration was about 750 ms for gratings with high spatial frequency (3.75 c/deg). This suggests that temporal integration property varies dependently on stimulus spatial frequency. We also attempted to relate the spatial frequency dependency of the temporal integration property to the differences in temporal frequency tuning to different spatial frequency stimuli.     

Influence of Exclusive Binocular Rivalry on Perceived Depth in the ‘Sieve Effect’

An impression of a surface seen through holes is created when one fuses dichoptic pairs of discs with one member of each pair black and the other white. This is referred to as the ‘sieve effect’. This stimulus contains no positional disparities. The impression of depth in the sieve effect is most evident when the size, contrast, and rim thickness of rivalrous patterns are such as to produce exclusive rivalry. I investigated how long it took for the sieve effect to recover from exclusive rivalry suppression. The magnitude of perceived depth in the effect was measured after exclusive rivalry suppression of one half-image of the sieve-effect stimulus. The results showed that the sieve effect takes approximately 630 ms to recover from exclusive rivalry suppression, compared with 200 ms for disparity-based stereopsis. Considered together with the previous report [Matsumiya and Howard: Invest. Ophthalmol. Visual Sci. 42 (2001) S403] that the sieve effect is positively correlated with the rate of exclusive rivalry, these findings suggest that the effect and exclusive rivalry are processed in the identical channel.     

常规立体视中的双重融合现象

尽管对于Wheatstone-Panum极限情况的特征匹配方式存在争议,但通常认为,两眼中特征数目都为2的常规立体视下的特征匹配遵循惟一性原则.本研究采用简单的2∶2直线型常规立体视构型发现,在左右直线分别发生融合的情况下,被试者可观察到第3根直线,这一现象与惟一性原则相背.利用双眼性探针技术证明,这根直线的产生,是由于一只眼中的某根直线与对侧眼中的两根直线发生了双重融合,这一结果表明,常规立体视并非只发生惟一性融合,还可能发生双重融合,并提示,Wheatstone-Panum极限情况发生的是双重融合.     

Effects of Temporal Frequency and Contrast on Spatial Frequency Characteristics for Disparity Threshold

We measured disparity threshold for identifying the depth direction as a function of spatial frequency with various temporal frequencies and stimulus contrasts using drifting gratings. The results showed that disparity threshold depended little on temporal frequency with the exception of high temporal frequencies (≥ 10Hz) independently of stimulus contrast. Contrary to temporal frequency, contrast substantially influenced spatial frequency characteristics. The disparity threshold was approximately constant with change in spatial frequency with slight increase at high spatial frequencies for contrasts higher than 0.2 when the threshold is expressed by phase difference between the left and right eye images (phase disparity). The phase disparity threshold had a negative peak at a spatial frequency between 1 and 5c/deg (band-pass) for contrasts lower than 0.2. We discuss possible differences in the underlying mechanisms to determine disparity threshold below and above temporal frequency of 10 Hz.