Optical flow from eye movement with head immobilized: “Ocular occlusion” beyond the nose

• Published in: Vision research (Oxford) Vol. 33; no. 5; pp. 777 - 789
• Main Author: Bingham, Geoffrey P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.03.1993; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Biological and medical sciences; Eye movement; Eye Movements - physiology; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Male; Nodal point; Occlusion; Optic flow; Perception; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Rotation; Sensory Deprivation - physiology; Space life sciences; Space Perception - physiology; Vision; Occlusion; Nodal point; Optic flow; Eye movement; Human; Visual stimulus; Vision; Visual observation; Perception; Psychophysics; Rotation
• ISSN: 0042-6989; 1878-5646
• DOI: 10.1016/0042-6989(93)90197-5

The point of observation translates with eye movement because it is not coincident with the center of rotation in the eye. “Ocular occlusion” results. The amount of optical structure revealed by eye rotation depends on the distances of the occluding and occluded surfaces. The method of adjustment was used in Expt 1 to investigate the amount of structure detected at distances up to 1 m. In Expt 2, a forced-choice method was used to confirm predictions based on the assumption that the point of observation is in the entrance pupil at 11 nun from the center of rotation. (The location of the point of observation in the eye had not been measured previously.) Experiment 3 investigated the use of ocular occlusion to detect separation of surfaces in depth.