Volume 6, Number 11, Article 9, Pages 1257-1266 doi:10.1167/6.11.9 http://journalofvision.org/6/11/9/ ISSN 1534-7362
Spatial scale of stereomotion speed processing
Kevin R. Brooks
NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, USA
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Leland S. Stone
NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, USA
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Abstract

To examine the spatial scale of the mechanisms supporting the perception of motion in depth defined by binocular cues, we measured stereomotion speed discrimination thresholds as a function of stimulus size using a two-interval speed comparison task. Stimuli were either random dot stereogram (RDS) bars featuring both the changing disparity (CD) and the interocular velocity difference (IOVD) cues to motion in depth or dynamic random dot stereogram (DRDS) bars featuring the CD cue alone. Monocular speed discrimination performance was also assessed, using half-images of the RDS stimulus. In addition, subjects' stereoacuity for stationary versions of the binocular stimuli was measured. Stimuli ranged in vertical extent from 1.25 to 40 min. Sensitivity to speed differences was strongly related to stimulus height for DRDS stimuli. Performance decreased rapidly as stimulus size was reduced, becoming nearly random for heights below 5 min. However, for RDS stimuli, speed discrimination performance declined with reductions in stimulus size at a far slower rate, providing superior performance at every stimulus size used. Monocular performance was superior still for the majority of subjects, yet showed a similar rate of decline to binocular RDS stimuli. We conclude that the spatial resolution of the CD mechanism and its static disparity inputs is, on average, nearly nine times more coarse than the IOVD system and its monocular motion inputs. Static stereoacuity controls show that this finding cannot be explained by differences in the disparity signals available in our RDS and DRDS stimuli.

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History
Received November 9, 2005; published October 26, 2006
Citation
Brooks, K. R., & Stone, L. S. (2006). Spatial scale of stereomotion speed processing. Journal of Vision, 6(11):9, 1257-1266, http://journalofvision.org/6/11/9/, doi:10.1167/6.11.9.
Keywords
binocular vision, motion in depth, spatial summation, spatial integration
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