Depth Perception Obstruction, Results

Results:
The results of our experiment were interesting in that different test subjects showed significantly different abilities in distinguishing proper depth perception, despite one eye being obstructed in some cases. The graph below summarizes the findings of this study quite accurately in very clearly stating that test subjects were able to much more accurately perform the depth perception test while using two eyes (binocular vision) than while using just one eye (monocular vision). For the tests where subjects were allowed to use both eyes to determine depth perception, they were able to determine where the vertical bars met to within 0.83 cm on average. On the other hand, when one eye was obstructed, the average distance away from actual that the test subjects were able to determine where the vertical bars met grew to over 1.64 cm on average. This striking fact indicates that binocular vision was much more successful at aiding subjects in determining correct depth perception than was monocular vision.

In performing a statistical analysis of the data, we opted to perform a two-tailed t-test. This test was chosen because it was the most appropriate given the hypothesis that expected binocular vision to be more effective than monocular vision in depth perception testing. The p-value resulting from this test was 0.013. Because our alpha value for this experiment was 0.05, this p-value indicates statistical significance in our findings. In the context of our experiment, this indicates that an unobstructed while determining depth perception, for humans, is more accurate than an obstructed one.