Stereoscopic perception with brief exposures

In this report we describe the results of an experiment in which we demonstrated that a powerful and compelling stereoscopic experience is elicited with very brief (< 1 msec) stimulus durations. The observers were highly successful in recognizing briefly flashed, stereoscopic, random-dot surfaces in the absence of monocular contours. The results are shown to be closely related to the range of depths for any stimulus form; however, the recognition thresholds were nonmonotonic as a function of disparity. Previous investigators have disagreed about the existence of a temporal threshold for stereopsis. We believe that prior findings suggesting that stereopsis cannot occur at short exposure durations are probably due to inadequate control of fixation disparity. Therefore, there is poor dichoptic image registration when a stereoscopic stimulus is presented. The present results also raise difficulties for any theory of stereopsis that requires eye movements.