Ocular Dominance and Field of View in Monocular and Binocular Optical Systems

Abstract

An experiment was conducted in which the effects of ocular dominance and field-or-view restrictions on judgments of centricity were examined. Thirty subjects (J 5 left-eye dominant and 15 right-eye dominant) were asked to make midpoint estimates in five experimental tasks under all possible combinations of the following conditions: (a) monocular vs. binocular viewing; (b) total covering of either the dominant or nondominant eye; and (c) field-or-view restrictions of either 20, 40, or 60 degrees. While no evidence was found to suggest that, by themselves, eye dominance or field-or-view restrictions seriously affect observers' midpoint judgments, under monocular viewing conditions the direction of errors by right- and left-eye dominant subjects was found to depend on which eye was the viewing eye (i.e., dominant or nondominant). The results are discussed in terms of previous research in the area, and implications for the design and use of optical systems are presented.