Exploring the Depths – of Vision!

Introduction

Did you know that there is a type of clam that has thousands of small eyes covering its body? It’s called the Tridachna gigas, and it lives in the South Pacific Ocean. Although it has a lot of them, the Tridachna gigas’ eyes are fairly primitive compared to ours (so don’t be too jealous that you don’t have thousands of eyes too!). 

In modern times, all vertebrate animals (including humans) have two eyes. Humans have developed an amazingly complex visual processing system, that allows us to collect and process a tremendous amount of information – in the blink of an eye! Our visual system is so good at processing information for us that we usually don’t even notice what it’s doing. In today’s activity we’re going to explore some of the amazing abilities of that system, so get ready to say ‘Thanks Eyes!’. 

Background

Having two eyes gives humans and other animals many advantages in our daily lives. For example, having two eyes allows us to see a larger field of view (to test this, cover your left eye and try to see something on that side of your head, without moving – you can’t!). In addition, the eyes of humans and some other predators are special, in that they are positioned on the front of our heads. This gives us what is known as binocular vision, where our two eyes work together to see the world around us. Some animals, particularly animals that are prey like rabbits and mice, have eyes positioned on either side of their head. These animals have what is known as monocular vision, where the information coming from each eye is different, and there is little to no overlap between the visual fields of the two eyes. 

Having binocular vision gives humans and other animals much better depth perception. Depth perception is our ability to perceive our world in 3 dimensions, and estimate the distance between objects. For example, when you reach across the table to pick up a glass, you use your depth perception to tell you where that glass is, and when to stop moving your hand so you don’t knock it over. 

In this activity we’ll be exploring exactly how much binocular vision contributes to our depth perception. Keep your eyes open! 

Materials

Preparation

Procedure

Observations and Results

In this activity you explored some of the functions of our binocular visual system. When you covered one eye, you probably noticed that it was more difficult to catch the ping pong ball, compared to when both of your eyes were open. If you look at the ‘Total (eye)’ row and compare the number of successful catches for Both Eyes open, vs. Right Eye open, vs. Left Eye open, you probably can see that you were much better at catching the ball with both eyes open. 

In addition, when you compare the Right Eye and Left Eye totals, you may have also noticed that you were better at catching the ball when just your Right eye was open compared to your Left, or vice versa. This is common, and can be a sign of eye dominance. Just like most people have one dominant hand, many of us also have a dominant eye. This is the eye that our brain relies on most for visual information. Many people are slightly better at processing precise positional information (such as the trajectory of a ping pong ball!) that comes from their dominant eye. So if you notice a difference in the data you collected between your right and left eye, you may have discovered which of your eyes is dominant. 

In addition to eye dominance, this activity demonstrates the importance of binocular vision in depth perception. When you covered one eye, you probably didn’t notice a big change in how clearly you could see things around you. You could probably still read things at a distance (as well as you could with both eyes open), and your surroundings were noticeably fuzzy. However, even though you could see just as clearly with one eye covered, you still struggled to catch the ball. This is because depth perception is improved when the brain receives information from both eyes. One reason for this improvement is the binocular visual cue known as stereopsis or binocular retinal disparity. In short, having two eyes focused on an object allows us to triangulate the object’s position with a higher degree of accuracy. Because of the distance between your right and left eye, each eye perceives the object from a slightly different angle. If an object is far away, the disparity of that image falling on both retinas will be small. If the object is close or near, the disparity will be large. 

To see this in action, hold your finger up in front of your eyes, about 6-8 inches from your face. Focus your eyes on something behind your finger, so that you see a double image of your finger. Once you see two (slightly transparent) fingers, slowly move your hand away from your face. As you do this, the distance between the ‘two’ fingers will appear to decrease. Cool!

Having two eyes allows us to do many things more easily, including judge the distances between objects. So next time you’re playing a sport, or running toward something, or even reaching for your water glass – make sure to keep both eyes open! 

More to Explore

• Are Your Eyes Playing Tricks On You from Science Buddies
• Motion After-Effects in Vision from Science Buddies
• Science Activities for All Ages! from Science Buddies

Credits