Getting the measure of vergence weight in nearness perception
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 15, 2026

Measuring Attention and Visual Processing Speed by Model-based Analysis of Temporal-order Judgments
Published on: January 23, 2017
J R Tresilian1, M Mon-Williams
1University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Australia.
Abstract:
Combining multiple sources of information allows the human nervous system to construct an approximately Euclidean representation of near (personal) space. Within this space, binocular vergence is an important source of egocentric distance information. We investigated how the nervous system determines the significance (weight) accorded to vergence information when other (retinal) distance cues are present. We found that weight decreases with (1) increasing discrepancy between vergence information and other cues and (2) reduced vergence demand. The results also provided evidence that the nervous system represents vergence related distance information in units of nearness (the reciprocal of distance).
Related Concept Videos
Depth Perception and Spatial Vision
Apparent Weight
Consider a person standing on a bathroom scale inside an elevator. If the scale is accurate at rest, its reading equals the...
Measuring Acceleration Due to Gravity
A simple pendulum can be described as a point mass and a string. Meanwhile, a physical pendulum is any object whose oscillations are similar to a simple pendulum, but cannot be modeled as a point mass on a string because its mass is distributed over a larger area. The behavior of a physical pendulum can be modeled using the principles of...
Sight Distance in a Vertical Curve
Finding the Center of Gravity
Focusing of Light in the Eye

