Pictorial cues constrain depth in da Vinci stereopsis

“da Vinci stereopsis” is defined as depth seen in a monocular object occluded by a binocular one, and the visual system must solve its depth ambiguity [Nakayama, K., & Shimojo, S. (1990). da Vinci stereopsis: Depth and subjective occluding contours from unpaired image points. Vision Research, 30, 1811–1825]. Although fused images include various pictorial features, effects of pictorial depth cues have never been systematically investigated in da Vinci stereopsis. To examine this, we created stereograms consisting of a monocular bar flanked by binocular bars with a fixed large horizontal separation, in which the monocular bar induced a subjective occluding edge. Manipulating vertical size or contrast of the bars could affect the depth of the monocular bar. Conflicting these cues revealed that the effect of vertical size was stronger than that of contrast in all our subjects. Measurements of the depth indicated that the relative vertical size of the bars quantitatively determined the perceived depth, of which levels had large inter-subject differences. All these experiments indicate that the visual system can use the pictorial depth cues as a constraint to determine the depth of monocular elements.