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Temporal Phase Affects Spatial Binding in Depth Perception

The temporal linking of spatial information is essential for coherent space perception. We investigated the effect of the temporal phase of flickering ‘inducers’ in depth perception. Stereo half-images were generated on the left and right halves of a large-screen video monitor and viewed through a mirror stereoscope. The half-images portrayed a solid-black vertically oriented bar seen against a white background. Two brackets immediately flanking this bar could be placed in crossed or uncrossed disparity relative to the bar. A pair of thin white ‘bridging lines’ could appear on the black bar, always at zero disparity. Brackets and bridging lines could be flickered either in-phase or out-of-phase. Observers judged whether the brackets appeared in front of or behind the black bar, with disparity varied over trials according to a method of constant stimuli. We found that when bridging lines were absent, the depth location of the brackets was predictably dependent on disparity sign, with a small bias for “behind” judgements owing to occlusion. When bridging lines and brackets flashed in temporal phase, depth judgements were markedly biased toward “in front”; when the bridging lines and brackets flashed out of phase, this bias was much reduced. This biasing effect also depended on the spatial offset of lines and brackets. We conclude that depth perception is strongly influenced by the temporal phase of the spatial information.