Abstract
Textures of regions can be used as information for judging whether the regions are continuous or not. In the case of depth perception, if textures in two regions are different, the regions would be different in depth, but if these are the same, the regions would be continuous. This consideration lead to an assumption that when the regions have different textures, the sensitivity for perceiving depth of the regions would be higher than when textures are the same. To test this assumption, we measured stereoscopic depth threshold between two regions while manipulating the textures of them. Stimulus was a stereogram consisted of short line elements tilted 45 or −45 degrees. The elements within one region were the same and those in two regions were different or same. Disparity was introduced into the central square region of the stimulus and observers responded whether the region was nearer or further than the background. Disparity threshold were determined for each combination of texture and stimulus configuration. The results showed that depth threshold depended on texture conditions. However, the tendency of the results was opposite to the assumption, i.e. when textures of two regions were different, the sensitivity for perceived depth gap was lower. This might indicate that the difference of texture between regions disturbs the processing of disparity.