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Abstract

Four experiments examined whether generalization to unfamiliar views was better under stereo viewing as opposed to nonstereo viewing across different tasks and stimuli. The first three experiments used a sequential matching task in which observers matched the identity of shaded tube-like objects. Across Experiments 1-3, we manipulated the presentation method of the nonstereo stimuli (eye-patch versus showing the same screen image) and the magnitude of the viewpoint change (30° versus 38°). In Experiment 4, observers identified “easy” and “hard” rotating wireframe objects at the individual level under stereo and nonstereo viewing conditions. We found a stereo advantage for generalizing to unfamiliar views in all experiments. However, in these experiments, performance remained view-dependent even under stereo viewing. These results strongly argue against strictly 2D image-based models of object recognition, at least for the stimuli and recognition tasks used, and they suggest that observers used representations that contained view-specific local depth information.