Abstract

A recent model¹ of binocular interaction in human vision was tested at the differential luminance threshold; it was also used to fit the data of Birch² on suprathreshold contrast matching. The quantitative model was quite successful in predicting the relations among monoptic, binoptic, and dichoptic effects, both at threshold and for the suprathreshold task. The threshold experiment was similar to that of Cohn and Lasley,³ and their observations were replicated. It will be shown, however, that these observations do not indicate the operation of two independent binocular channels, as proposed by Cohn and Lasley.³ On the present model¹ all binocular stimuli, of whatever interocular polarity, are processed in the same bilateral either-eye channel, where excitatory summation is reduced by reciprocal inhibition. In addition, same-polarity (binoptic) stimuli evoke a fused binocular response that is purely excitatory. The model offers a unified qualitative explanation for diverse binocular phenomena, including the Julesz-Tyler neurontropy.⁴

© 1986 Optical Society of America