The influence of large scanning eye movements on stereoscopic slant estimation of large surfaces

The results of several experiments demonstrate that the estimated magnitude of perceived slant of large stereoscopic surfaces increases with the duration of the presentation. In these experiments, subjects were free to make eye movements. A possible explanation for the increase is that the visual system needs to scan the stimulus with eye movements (which take time) before it can make a reliable estimate of slant. We investigated the influence of large scanning eye movements on stereoscopic slant estimation of large surfaces. Six subjects estimated the magnitude of slant about the vertical or horizontal axis induced by large-field stereograms of which one half-image was transformed by horizontal scale, horizontal shear, vertical scale, vertical shear, divergence or rotation relative to the other half-image. The experiment was blocked in three sessions. Each session was devoted to one of the following fixation strategies: central fixation, peripheral (20 deg) fixation and active scanning of the stimulus. The presentation duration in each of the sessions was 0.5, 2 or 8 s. Estimations were done with and without a visual reference. The magnitudes of estimated slant and the perceptual biases were not significantly influenced by the three fixation strategies. Thus, our results provide no support for the hypothesis that the time used for the execution of large scanning eye movements explains the build-up of estimated slant with the duration of the stimulus presentation.