Depth perception is the ability to perceive the world in three-dimensions. It does this via monocular and binocular depth cues. Previous research has shown that binocular judgements of depth are better than monocular judgements (Mckee et al., 2010). The current study looked at the effect of monocular and binocular vision when determining which of two objects were closer. It was hypothesised that two eyes would be better than one when judging depth perception. An experimental design was used in which a sample of 20 participants were asked to judge which of two identical pens was closer to them on a 10cm depth scale. The independent variable was whether participants were in the binocular or monocular condition and the dependent variable was the accuracy of depth perceptions. Correct or incorrect responses were recorded on a response scale. The results showed that participants in the binocular condition produced more correct answers than participants in the monocular condition, supporting the experimental hypothesis. This corresponds with previous research.
The Effect of Monocular and Binocular Vision when Judging Depth Perception
Depth perception in relation to physical stimuli comes from the study of psychophysics. Depth perception is the ability to see the world in three-dimensions and the distances of objects. The retina receives information in only two-dimensions, but the brain elicits information about depth so that we can perceive the world in three dimensions. It does this via visual and oculomotor cues.
Some depth cues only require input from one eye; these are known as monocular depth cues. They include motion parallax; when moving forward, the way objects move past you can inform you as to how far they are, aerial perspective; objects become clearer the closer they are to you, relative size; if there are two objects that you know are the same size, the smaller one must be further away, interposition; if one object overlaps another you can
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