Constancy of Height and Speed in Three-Dimensional Information Displays

Abstract

Pictorial cues to depth create a three-dimensional appearance in two-dimensional displays. With sufficient pictorial depth cues, a given physical size appears to be larger at a greater perceived distance (or the perceived size is constant at different perceived depths, despite changes in the retinal image – size constancy). Two experiments investigated the effects of perceived depth on the relation between the actual height of an object and the perceived height (Experiment 1) and the relation between the actual speed of the object the perceived speed (Experiment 2). Consistent with Emmert’s Law (Perceived Size = Retinal Image Size x Perceived Depth), perceived depth influenced both perceived height and perceived speed. These findings suggest that displays that use pictorial cues to depth could easily result in misperception of the height or speed of objects in the display.