Abstract

Previous research has firmly established that mechanisms tuned for spatial frequency and orientation provide the substrate for processing of monocular visual information, and it has recently been demonstrated that these mechanisms are also capable of supporting stereopsis. The present studies were accordingly designed to ascertain how disparity specific interactions among such mechanisms contribute to the processing of binocular depth information. In our paradigm the target consisted of a pair of vertically oriented bars, each with a 1.0 octave bandwidth (sixth spatial derivative of a Gaussian function). These bars were spaced so that one always appeared at zero disparity, while the second carried either a crossed or uncrossed disparity. This configuration was used to measure disparity thresholds in a two-interval forced choice procedure. Following this, the targets were superimposed on a cosine grating mask at zero disparity, and thresholds were remeasured as a function of mask spatial frequency and orientation. As a control, monocular two-bar separation discrimination was also measured using the same spatial patterns.

© 1988 Optical Society of America