Texture changes versus size changes as stimuli for motion in depth.

As an object approaches the eye, its retinal image size grows larger and its surface texture appears to grow coarser. We compare these two visual correlates of motion in their effectiveness as stimuli for motion in depth. In some experiments texture and object size both expanded or both contracted; in other experiments the two stimuli were pitted against each other. When texture and size change as for a rigid, nonrotating real world object an untextured square can be a more effective stimulus for motion in depth than the same square with texture. On way of describing this finding is to calculate the departure from linear summation of texture and size contributions. The departure is greatest when texture is static, being even greater than when texture changes in the opposite direction to size.