Temporal integration of motion and stereo cues to depth.

In three experiments, we investigated the integration of three-dimensional information provided over time by different depth cues. In the first experiment, we found that the perceptual derivation of sur- face orientation from the optic flow was affected by the prior presentation of static stereo information in the same spatial location. This bias weakened as the length of the motion sequence increased, but it was still present after 800 msec. In the second experiment, conversely, we found that the perceived ori- entationofastereo-specifiedsurfacewasnotinfluencedbythepriorpresentationofastaticstereosur- face. In a third experiment, we found that two surfaces defined by identical disparity fields did not elicitthesameperceiveddepthif,previously,oneofthemhadbeenspecifiedbyaconjunctionofstereo and motion information. This effect was found to last for at least 400 msec. Taken together, these find- ings indicate that interactions exist among different sources of depth information, even when they are provided at different moments of time.