Abstract

This study was concerned with the manner in which perceived depth and perceived frontoparallel size varied with physical distance and hence with each other. An equation expressing the relation between perceived size and physical depth was developed and applied to size judgments determined with four observers under two viewing conditions. By use of that equation and an expression of the size–distance invariance hypothesis, an additional equation was developed which related perceived and physical depth. The additional equation, when applied to judgments of perceived depth from the same observers under the same viewing conditions, produced results not in agreement with those expected from the size–distance invariance hypothesis. This is interpreted as evidence against the validity of the size–distance invariance hypothesis in its usual form. The data from the apparent depth judgments also were applied to the problem of the discrepancies in results that have been found in experiments on the perceptual bisection of depth intervals.

© 1964 Optical Society of America

Desarguesian Property in Visual Space*

John M. Foley
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 54(5) 684-692 (1964)

Visual form perception and the spatial phase transfer function

G. J. Burton and I. R. Moorhead
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 71(9) 1056-1063 (1981)

Characteristics of the Visual System: Psychophysical Measurements of the Response to Spatial Sine-Wave Stimuli in the Mesopic Region

Olof Bryngdahl
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 54(9) 1152-1160 (1964)

Static and Dynamic Visual Fields in Human Space Perception

Donald A. Gordon
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 55(10) 1296-1303 (1965)

Absolute Threshold Conditions for Visual Perception

M. A. Bouman
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 45(1) 36-43 (1955)