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Praxis School Psychologist (5402): Practice & Study Guide25 chapters | 211 lessons | 21 flashcard sets
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Tara has taught Psychology and has a master's degree in evolutionary psychology.
Retinal disparity is defined as the way that your left eye and your right eye view slightly different images. You might be asking yourself, 'How, then, is our vision just one continuous image?' The two slightly different images produced in both eyes are blended into one view when both eyes are open, and this is one of the ways in which human depth perception is possible.
Retinal disparity is important in gauging how far away objects are. The more difference (or greater disparity) between the image each eye has of the same object, the closer it is to you. The farther away an object is, on the other hand, the more similar it looks from viewing it with each eye alone. This is really adaptive as it allows us to determine how far away cliffs are, or predators, or a deep gorge so that these can be avoided and aid in survival.
You can easily demonstrate retinal disparity for yourself. Grab a nearby object (a pencil perhaps) and hold it in front of your nose. Then, close your right eye and take notice of the view you have of the object with just your left eye. Then, do the same thing, switching eyes. If the object is right in front of your nose, each eye should give you a very different view of the object. Now, keep moving the object slowly away from your face while checking the different views from each eye. You should notice that the farther away the object gets from your face, the more similar each view is from each eye.
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Another well-known example of the use of retinal disparity is in motion pictures. It is becoming ever more popular for movie trailers to advertise that a movie is in 3D. This 3D effect is made possible through retinal disparity. When a scene is filmed with two cameras placed a few inches apart, it mimics the retinal disparity experienced by humans with their eyes a few inches apart as each camera portrays a slightly different view of the scene being filmed. To make the effect complete, audiences in the movie theater will wear glasses that allow the left eye to see only the image from the left camera and the right eye to see only the image from the right camera. Thus, while watching 3D movies objects on screen seem to pop out right in front of our faces.
Retinal disparity is one of the cues that humans use in order to perceive depth. Specifically, it involves the use of both eyes and refers to the difference between the view that each eye receives of a given object or scene. The more the two views differ, the farther the object or scene being perceived is from the person viewing it, and the more similar the view from each eye is, the farther away the object or scene is.
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Praxis School Psychologist (5402): Practice & Study Guide25 chapters | 211 lessons | 21 flashcard sets