The horizontal disparity direction vs. the stimulus disparity direction in the perception of the depth of two-dimensional patterns

Horizontal binocular disparity has long been the conventional predictor of stereo depth. Surprisingly, an alternative predictor fairs just as well. This alternative predicts the relative depth of two stimuli from the relation between their disparity vectors, without regard to horizontal disparities. These predictions can differ; horizontal disparities accurately predict the perceived depth of a grating and a plaid only when the grating is vertical, while the vector calculation accurately predicts it at all except near-horizontal grating orientations. For spatially two-dimensional stimulus pairs, such as plaids, dots, and textures, the predictions cannot be distinguished when the stimuli have the same disparity direction or when the disparity direction of one of the stimuli is horizontal or has a magnitude of zero. These are the conditions that have prevailed in earlier studies. We tested whether the perceived depth of two-dimensional stimuli depends on relative horizontal disparity magnitudes or on relative disparity magnitudes along a disparity axis. On both measures tested-depth matches and depth-interval matches-the perceived depth of plaids varied with their horizontal disparities and not with disparity direction differences as observed for grating-plaid pairs. Differences in disparity directions as great as 120 degrees did not affect depth judgments. This result, though opposite the grating-plaid data, is consistent with them and provides a view into the construction of orientation-invariant disparity representations.