Wilde's dot-row phenomenon as a special case of aniseikonia

Summary In this investigation on Wilde's dot-row phenomenon vertical lines were used instead of dots. If was found that within the conditions of these experiments the apparent rotation of the patterns increased with increasing difference between the width of the monocular patterns (magnification between 5% and 10%), and decreased with increasing distance between the lines of the patterns. This distance varied from 4 arcmin to 10 arcmin. The apparent rotation of the patterns could be expressed by the regression equation R=a–b₁+b₂M, in which is the distance between the lines of the patterns and M is the percentage of magnification of one of the patterns in relation to the other one. From this regression equation the apparent rotation in aniseikonic random-dot patterns could be predicted. It was concluded that Wilde's phenomenon can be considered as an aniseikonic depth effect inhibited by the equal distance between the lines of the pattern.