If depth perception works because the brain checks the difference in the position of the object between the two eyes and concludes how far away it is, how can we still see depth when one eye is closed?

Question

If depth perception works because the brain checks the difference in the position of the object between the two eyes and concludes how far away it is, how can we still see depth when one eye is closed?

In: 3602

Answer 1

Your brain uses whatever it’s given. With two eyes it can triangulate to work out the distance of the object you’re looking at.

If you only have one eye, but you’re moving your head, it can do something similar (half a second ago we looked at the object from *this* angle, and now we’re looking at it from a slightly different angle, and we can compare the two to get a good idea of distance)

If you only have one eye, and your head isn’t moving, your brain can still try to guess based on other cues. Maybe you know how big the object is, and you can use that to get a good estimate of how far away it is, for example. Or it might use the way light falls on the object to provide some sort of estimate. You’ll still have *some* depth perception, but it’ll be less accurate.