Perceptual interactions in depth perception: A quantitative EEG study

Jeremy Ma

My study looked at neural activity during different types of visual depth perception in 8 subjects using an EEG, mainly focusing on how we perceive depth in real life. There are two different types of visual depth - pictorial depth (depth on a two-dimensional plane, induced by pictorial depth cues such as shading) and stereo depth (true three dimensional depth believed to be induced by binocular disparity). In real life, pictorial depth cues and binocular disparity are both present in our daily experiences, which leads to the simultaneous perception of stereo and pictorial depth. However, there is no term for this combined percept, so I will call it combined depth perception. There were studies that qualitatively investigated the combination of stereo depth and specific pictorial depth cues. They all show that the impression of depth was strengthened when both stereo and pictorial cues were present, however they failed to address the mechanisms behind the combination (Bulthoff & Mallot, 1988; Johnston, Cumming & Parker, 1993; Schiller, Slocum, Jao, & Weiner, 2011). In this study, I propose possible interactions between pictorial and stereo depth percepts based on two different theories: the structuralistic approach and the Gestalt approach.