Disparity masking.

Abstract

Demonstration that the depth sensations normally associated with disparity may be cancelled or reduced by the addition of small, extraneous surround objects. For example, when a large bar is altered by adding much smaller bars to its ends, the disparity of the added ends plays a very significant role in the depth of the original bar. If the sign of the disparity of the added ends is opposite that of the larger inner bar, the depth of the configuration may be lost completely or be reversed in reference to the fixation plane. The effects of such small surrounds upon the primary central stimulus reveal new properties of stereoscopic mechanisms and have implications for electrophysiological studies.