Study Questions: Depth Perception
1. Name the two classes of monocular cues for depth perception.
2. Briefly describe how each of the pictorial cues provides depth
information. For each cue, discuss the kind of information it provides
(e.g., depth order, relative depth, absolute depth, and in what ways
the information is ambiguous), and in what depth ranges does it provide
useful and accurate depth information.
3. Name two oculomotor cues for depth. How do they provide depth
information? Why do they fail to be effective when objects are far away
from you? What kind of information does each of them provide?
4. Name a depth cue that is derived from movement of the
observer. How does it provide depth information? What kind of
information does it provide?
5. Name a depth cue that is derived from movement of an object
relative to a stationary observer. What retinal information might be
used to extract this cue? What kind of information does it provide?
6. What is binocular disparity? Under what circumstances
does a visual scene give rise to binocular disparities? Briefly
describe how the direction and magnitude of binocular disparity relates
to the the relative depth of objects in the world. How would
you demonstrate binocular disparity as a depth cue? What kind of
information does it provide? What is the horopter?
7. Describe the way in which depth may be computed from disparity
in the two eyes' images. Diagram and label crossed and uncrossed
disparities.
8. What is binocular rivalry? How would you account for this
phenomenon?
9. Describe the construction of a random dot stereogram.
Given that subjects can perceive depth in such stimuli, what does this
imply about stereoscopic depth perception?
10. Describe shadows and shading as cues to depth, including
the kind of information provided, possible
ambiguities, and assumptions or knowledge required about the
illumination of the scene.