The human visual system does not rigidly preserve the properties of th
e retinal image as neural signals are transmitted to higher areas of t
he brain. Instead, it generates a representation that captures stable
surface properties despite a retinal image that is often fragmented in
space and time because of occlusion caused by object and observer mot
ion. The recovery of this coherent representation depends at least in
part on input from an abstract representation of three-dimensional (3-
D) surface layout. In the two experiments reported, a stereoscopic app
arent motion display was used to investigate the perceived continuity
of a briefly interrupted visual object. When a surface appeared in fro
nt of the object's location during the interruption, the object was mo
re likely to be perceived as persisting through the interruption (behi
nd an occluder) than when the surface appeared behind the object's loc
ation under otherwise identical stimulus conditions. The results revea
l the influence of 3-D surface-based representations even in very simp
le visual tasks.