The perceived visual direction of monocular objects in random-dot stereograms is influenced by perceived depth and allelotropia

The proposed influence of objects that are visible to both eyes on the perceived direction of an object that is seen by only one eye is known as the “capture of binocular visual direction”. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether stereoscopic depth perception is necessary for the “capture of binocular visual direction” to occur. In one pair of experiments, perceived alignment between two nearby monocular lines changed systematically with the magnitude and direction of horizontal but not vertical disparity. In four of the five observers, the effect of horizontal disparity on perceived alignment depended on which eye viewed the monocular lines. In additional experiments, the perceived alignment between the monocular lines changed systematically with the magnitude and direction of both horizontal and vertical disparities when the monocular line separation was increased from 1.1° to 3.3°. These results indicate that binocular capture depends on the perceived depth that results from horizontal retinal image disparity as well as allelotropia, or the averaging of local-sign information. Our data suggest that, during averaging, different weights are afforded to the local-sign information in the two eyes, depending on whether the separation between binocularly viewed targets is horizontal or vertical.