Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Humans can perceive depth when viewing with one eye, and even when viewing a two-dimensional picture of a three-dimensional scene. However, viewing a real scene with both eyes produces a more compelling three-dimensional experience of immersive space and tangible solid objects. A widely held belief is that this qualitative visual phenomenon (stereopsis) is a by-product of binocular vision. In the research reported here, we empirically established, for the first time, the qualitative characteristics associated with stereopsis to show that they can occur for static two-dimensional pictures without binocular vision. Critically, we show that stereopsis is a measurable qualitative attribute and that its induction while viewing pictures is not consistent with standard explanations based on depth-cue conflict or the perception of greater depth magnitude. These results challenge the conventional understanding of the underlying cause, variation, and functional role of stereopsis.

Keywords

stereopsis depth perception distance perception picture perception binocular disparity space perception

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Ames

(1925). The illusion of depth in pictures. Journal of the Optical Society of America, 10, 137–148.

Barry

(2009). Fixing my gaze. New York, NY: Basic Books.

Botvinick

Cohen

(1998). Rubber hands “feel” touch that eyes see. Nature, 391, 756.

Bülthoff

H. H.

Mallot

H. A.

(1988). Integration of depth modules: Stereo and shading. Journal of the Optical Society of America A, 5, 1749–1758.

Domini

Caudek

(2009). The intrinsic constraint model and Fechnerian sensory scaling. Journal of Vision, 9(2), Article 25. Retrieved from http://www.journalofvision.org/content/9/2/25

Eby

D. W.

Braunstein

M. L.

(1995). The perceptual flattening of three-dimensional scenes enclosed by a frame. Perception, 24, 981–993.

Ehrsson

H. H.

(2007). The experimental induction of out-of-body experiences. Science, 24, 1048.

Frisby

J. P.

Buckley

Horsman

J. M.

(1995). Integration of stereo, texture, and outline cues during pinhole viewing of real ridge-shaped objects and stereograms of ridges. Perception, 24, 181–198.

Glennerster

Rogers

B. J.

Bradshaw

M. F.

(1996). Stereoscopic depth constancy depends on the subject’s task. Vision Research, 36, 3441–3456.

10.

Gogel

Da Silva

J. A.

(1987). Familiar size and the theory of off-sized perceptions. Perception & Psychophysics, 1987, 41, 318–328.

11.

Howard

I. P.

Rogers

B. J.

(2002). Seeing in depth. Thornhill, Ontario, Canada: University of Toronto Press.

12.

Kaufman

J. H.

Noble

Edlund

Bai

King

(2006). Perceptual distance and the constancy of size and stereoscopic depth. Spatial Vision, 19, 439–457.

13.

Koenderink

J. J.

(1998). Pictorial relief. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London A, 356, 1071–1086.

14.

Kubovy

(1986). The psychology of perspective and Renaissance art. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

15.

Landy

M. S.

Maloney

L. T.

Johnston

E. B.

Young

(1995). Measurement and modelling of depth cue combination: In defense of weak fusion. Vision Research, 35, 389–412.

16.

Loomis

J. M.

Philbeck

J. W.

Zahorik

(2002). Dissociation of location and shape in visual space. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 28, 1202–1212.

17.

McIntosh

R. D.

Lashley

(2008). Matching boxes: Familiar size influences action programming. Neuropsychologia, 46, 2441–2444.

18.

Michotte

(1991). The psychological enigma of perspective in outline pictures. In Thines

Costall

Butterworth

(Eds. & Trans.), Michotte’s experimental phenomenology of perception (pp. 268–288). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. (Original work published 1948)

19.

Musatti

C. L.

(1924). Sui fenomeni stereocinetici [On the stereokinetic phenomenon]. Archivio Italiano di Psicologia, 3, 105–120.

20.

Ogle

K. N.

(1950). Researches in binocular vision. Oxford, England: W.B. Saunders.

21.

Pirenne

M. H.

(1970). Optics, painting & photography. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

22.

Ponce

C. R.

Born

R. T.

(2008). Stereopsis. Current Biology, 18, R845–R850.

23.

Predebon

, (1993). The familiar-size cue to distance and stereoscopic depth perception. Perception, 22, 985–995.

24.

Rogers

Graham

(1982). Similarities between motion parallax and stereopsis in human depth perception. Vision Research, 22, 261–270.

25.

Sakano

Ando

(2010). Effects of head motion and stereo viewing on perceived glossiness. Journal of Vision, 10(9), Article 15. Retrieved from http://www.journalofvision.org/content/10/9/15

26.

Schlosberg

(1941). Stereoscopic depth from single pictures. American Journal of Psychology, 54, 601–605.

27.

Vishwanath

(2011). Information in surface and depth perception: Reconciling pictures and reality. In Albertazzi

van Tonder

Vishwanath

(Eds.), Perception beyond inference (pp. 201–240). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

28.

Vishwanath

Girshick

Banks

M. S.

(2005). Why pictures look right when viewed from the wrong place. Nature Neuroscience, 8, 1401–1410.

29.

Wallach

O’Connell

D. N.

(1953). The kinetic depth effect. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 45, 205–217.

30.

Watt

S. J.

Akeley

Ernst

M. O.

Banks

M. S.

(2005). Focus cues affect perceived depth. Journal of Vision, 5(7), Article 7. Retrieved from http://www.journalofvision.org/content/5/10/7

31.

Wheatstone

(1838). Contributions to physiology of vision, part I: On some remarkable, and hitherto unobserved, phenomena of binocular vision. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 128, 371–394.

32.

Young

M. J.

Landy

M. S.

Maloney

L. T.

(1993). A perturbation analysis of depth perception from combinations of texture and motion cues. Vision Research, 33, 2685–2696.

33.

Zimmerman

D. L.

Legge

G. E.

Cavanagh

(1995). Pictorial depth cues: A new slant. Journal of the Optical Society of America A, 12, 17–26.

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

13.71 MB

Seeing in 3-D With Just One Eye

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References

Supplementary Material