Stereopsis provides a constant feed to visual shape representation.

• Shape recognition performance was worst with reversed binocular disparity. • Performance was better with null or normal disparity, which did not differ. • Conflicting sources of depth information lead to degraded shape descriptions. • Visual shape perception continuously integrates binocular disparity information. The contribution of stereopsis in human visual shape perception was examined using stimuli with either null, normal, or reversed binocular disparity in an old/new object recognition task. The highest levels of recognition performance were observed with null and normal binocular disparity displays, which did not differ. However, reversed disparity led to significantly worse performance than either of the other display conditions. This indicates that stereopsis provides a continuous input to the mechanisms involved in shape perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]