Question

Lakshmi is shown two pictures simultaneously. Her left eye is shown a rectangle and her right eye is shown a tiger. Lakshmi reports that sometimes she sees the rectangle and other times she sees the tiger, but not both at the same time. This example illustrates binocular _____.

Answer 1

Lakshmi's experience of seeing a rectangle with one eye and a tiger with the other, but never both at the same time, exemplifies binocular rivalry. This occurs when the brain alternates between different images presented to each eye, demonstrating the challenges of combining disparate visual inputs into a single 3D perception.

Step-by-step explanation:

The student is describing an occurrence that illustrates binocular rivalry, a phenomenon in which visual perception fluctuates between different images presented to each eye. Our brains interpret the 250 words of visual input by combining signals from both eyes to construct a sense of depth and a three-dimensional view of the world. This binocular cue, known as binocular disparity, relies on the slightly different angles from which each of our eyes sees an object.

However, when presented with a situation like Lakshmi's, where each eye receives a completely different image - a rectangle to the left eye and a tiger to the right eye - the brain cannot easily merge them into a cohesive view. As a result, it alternates between the two images, an outcome of binocular rivalry. This scenario also indicates that even in a world perceived in 3D, our visual system can be fooled or challenged, leading to shifts in perception based on the information our eyes collect and our brain processes.