Surface Separation Decreases Stereoscopic Slant but a Monocular Aperture Increases it

When an isolated surface is stereoscopically slanted around its vertical axis, perceived slant is attenuated relative to prediction, whereas when a frontal-plane surface is placed above or below the slanted surface, slant is close to the predicted magnitude. Gillam et al (1988 Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 14 163 – 175) have argued that this slant enhancement is due to the introduction of a gradient of relative disparities across the abutment of the two surfaces which is a more effective stimulus for slant than is the gradient of absolute disparities present when the slanted surface is presented alone. To test this claim we varied the separation between the two surfaces, along either the vertical or depth axis. Since these manipulations have been reported to reduce the depth response to individual relative disparities, they should similarly affect any slant response based on a gradient of relative disparities. As predicted, increasing the separation, vertically or in depth, systematically reduced both the perceived slant of the stereoscopically slanted surface and also the stereo contrast slant induced in the frontal-plane surface. These results are not predicted by alternative accounts of slant enhancement (disparity-gradient contrast, normalisation, frame of reference). We also demonstrated that sidebands of monocular texture, when added to equate the half-image widths of the slanted surface, increased the perceived slant of this surface (particularly when presented alone) and reduced the contrast slant. Monocular texture, by signalling occlusion, appeared to provide absolute slant information which determined how the total relative slant perceived between the surfaces was allocated to each.