The Perception of Scale-Dependent and Scale-Independent Surface Structure from Binocular Disparity, Texture, and Shading

The integration of binocular disparity, shading, and texture was measured for two different aspects of three-dimensional structure: (1) shape index, which is a measure of scale-independent structure, and (2) curvedness, which is a measure of scale-dependent structure. Binocular disparity was found to contribute significantly more to judged shape index than it does to judged curvedness, and shading and texture were both found to contribute more to judged curvedness than to judged shape index. These results demonstrate that different cues do not contribute equally to different aspects of perceived surface structure. This finding suggests that, for the case of linear integration, multiple cues to three-dimensional structure do not combine on the basis of a single type of representation shared by all the ‘shape-from-X’ processes in the visual system.