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Abstract

Binocular unmasking refers to the improved detection performance of noise-masked simple visual patterns (e.g. grating) in the presence compared to the absence of 3-D cues (stereoscopic depth cues). Here we investigated whether binocular unmasking is also important when perceiving noise-masked real-life objects. Specifically, we measured the detection, categorization, and identification thresholds of real-life objects in the presence and absence of stereoscopic depth cues. We found that the detection, categorization, and identification of objects was significantly better in the presence than in the absence of stereoscopic depth cues using hypothesis tests. Hence binocular unmasking seems important for object perception.