The Role of Binocular Disparity in Rapid Scene and Pattern Recognition

Abstract

We investigated the contribution of binocular disparity to the rapid recognition of scenes and simpler spatial patterns using a paradigm combining backward masked stimulus presentation and short-term match-to-sample recognition. First, we showed that binocular disparity did not contribute significantly to the recognition of briefly presented natural and artificial scenes, even when the availability of monocular cues was reduced. Subsequently, using dense random dot stereograms as stimuli, we showed that observers were in principle able to extract spatial patterns defined only by disparity under brief, masked presentations. Comparing our results with the predictions from a cue-summation model, we showed that combining disparity with luminance did not per se disrupt the processing of disparity. Our results suggest that the rapid recognition of scenes is mediated mostly by a monocular comparison of the images, although we can rely on stereo in fast pattern recognition.

Binocular disparity can augment the capacity of vision without affecting subjective experience of depth

“…Hence, consistent with Valsecchi et al . 12 , our results suggest that disparity does not produce a strong general benefit for visual object individuation.…”

“…Valsecchi et al . 12 found that binocular disparity did not improve the accuracy of recognizing artificial or naturalistic scenes when monocular cues were available to provide information about the structure of the scene. However, McKee and Taylor 27 showed that when real stimuli (instead of computer generated stimuli) were used, binocular depth discrimination thresholds of two adjacent objects were clearly superior to monocular thresholds.…”

“…Binocular disparity improves eye-hand coordination 5 – 7 , and visual recognition of singular items when simple stimulus displays are used 8 – 11 . Whether disparity also improves the segmentation of objects from background in naturalistic settings where multiple objects are present remains open 12 . Specifically, we were interested in examining if binocular disparity improves the recognition of multiple objects in naturalistic settings.…”

Orienting of visuo‐spatial attention in complex 3D space: Search and detection

“…This indicates that the responses of V3A reflected primarily the processing of the binocular cues, rather than any interaction between the bottom-up sensory input and any top-down signal associated with the active search of the target. Nonetheless, previous studies showed that stereoscopic-viewing supports the segmentation of objects at different depths [Finlayson et al, 2013], which can facilitate the representation and selection of objects in complex 3D scenes [Lee and Saunders, 2011;Valsecchi et al 2013]. In turns, this bottom-up effect at the sensory level could be the basis for the enhanced change- .…”

Binocular disparity can augment the capacity of vision without affecting subjective experience of depth

“…McKee et al 26 has shown that visual disparity aids the detection of a moving target dot that is flanked by randomly moving distractor dots that occupy a different plane in depth, but crucially when the moving target is presented in the midst of randomly moving distractors, disparity provides negligible help 26. Valsecchi et al 12 found that binocular disparity did not improve the accuracy of recognizing artificial or naturalistic scenes when monocular cues were available to provide information about the structure of the scene. However, McKee and Taylor 27 showed that when real stimuli (instead of computer generated stimuli) were used, binocular depth discrimination thresholds of two adjacent objects were clearly superior to monocular thresholds.…”