Re: Dominating eye

[P3D Larry Berlin <lberlin@xxxxxxxxx>]

>Date: Tue, 14 Jan 1997 11:58:18 -0500 (EST)
>
__________________
> Paul Talbot writes:
>With practice, many people could learn, for example, to write equally well
>with either hand.  This would not, imho, change the fact that they have an
>innate tendency to be right-handed or left-handed.  You may have a highly
>developed ability to instanteously switch between left and right eye
>perspectives, but if a crisis situation were to demand you react without
>time to consciously make a choice, wouldn't your pointing reflect the same
>dominant eye tendency you observe using other tests?

*******   No, because pointing isn't a life and death situation and if you
have dual eye awareness, pointing involves choosing which view of your
finger to point with. I don't know how this test would have worked for me
several years ago, but now I clearly see two pointing fingers and would now
choose, rather unconsciously, to point *between* the two visible fingers. It
only works if you are not aware of each eye's view, which leaves out most
with stereo viewing experience. Due to this factor this method seems
unreliable at best. It requires tricking yourself into pointing while not
paying any attention at all to the process, and some have mentioned having a
tendency to view with the eye closest to the arm/hand doing the pointing.

>
>>When the mind accepts one
>>eye's information exclusive of the other eye, or fails to process
>>comparisons of texture or parallax, then stereo depth awareness is impaired.
>
>I see the point!  But doesn't this go beyond a mere dominant-eye condition,
>which I think virtually everyone has, into an "abnormality?" (Sorry I don't
>have a more PC term on hand at the momemt.)
>
>Paul Talbot
>

****  Since there is a significant percentage of the population that
supposedly can't see stereograms, it seems to indicate that the condition
isn't really an *abnormality* though in some cases it could be such. Perhaps
this is mostly because FV hasn't been a cultural requirement for us from
childhood up. Maybe in the future a larger percentage will be exposed to
such things earlier. Specifically, I consider this fairly *normal* because
for all sorts of normal conditions, our mind already filters the information
from each eye and automatically accepts or relies on one over the other
ANYTIME there is a discrepancy. Retinal rivalry is the experience of our
mind *switching* back and forth between the two visible versions seeking the
solidity of information that we find to be normal. When looking around a
corner we are rarely conscious of the fact that only one eye is being relied
upon more than the other. This process which operates so smoothly and
without thought significantly interferes with stereo fusion when the
discrepencies are ignored instead of used, and the mind chooses to *see* one
eye's version over a fused version. Our sight is like an internal holodeck
and those who frequently can't see the 3D version are simply *projecting* a
2D image onto the mind's holo space. We do this all the time with 2D imagery
so it seems extremely normal. FV requires that we make use of both internal
projectors and fuse the result.

It may be very advantageous to your child's health to provide them with
ViewMaster reels or other stereo tools while young so that at a minimum they
become aware of this particular faculty. The use they make of it is their
own choice, but at least it won't be as strange a phenomenon later should
they try to FV. Children provided only with 2D images, may bypass this
awareness and develop observation habits that shuts out *difference*
information instead of using it.

Larry Berlin

Email: lberlin@xxxxxxxxx
http://www.sonic.net/~lberlin/
http://3dzine.simplenet.com/


------------------------------