title: Aging and the perception of 3-D shape from dynamic patterns of binocular disparity.
abstract: In two experiments, we investigated the ability of younger and older observers to perceive and discriminate 3-D shape from static and dynamic patterns of binocular disparity. In both experiments, the younger observers' discrimination accuracies were 20% higher than those of the older observers. Despite this quantitative difference, in all other respects the older observers performed similarly to the younger observers. Both age groups were similarly affected by changes in the magnitude of binocular disparity, by reductions in binocular correspondence, and by increases in the speed of stereoscopic motion. In addition, observers in both age groups exhibited an advantage in performance for dynamic stereograms when the patterns of binocular disparity contained significant amounts of correspondence "noise." The process of aging does affect stereopsis, but the effects are quantitative rather than qualitative.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY 42101, USA. farley.norman@wku.edu
authors.forename: J Farley
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Norman
authors.forename: Charles E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Crabtree
authors.forename: Molly
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Herrmann
authors.forename: Sarah R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.forename: Cassandra F
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Shular
authors.forename: Anna Marie
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Clayton
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015357:Vision Disparity / Q000502:physiology*; D015348:Vision, Binocular / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*