The necessity and utility of visual attention are discussed in the context of stereo vision in machines and primates. Specific problems that arise in this domain including binocular rivalry, and the deployment of attention in three-dimensional space are considered. Necessary conditions are outlined for achieving appropriate attentional behaviour in both the aforementioned domains. In this light, we outline classes of existing computational models of attention and discuss their applicability for realizing binocular attention. Finally, a stereo attention framework is presented by considering the tenets of an existing attentional architecture that extends naturally to the binocular domain, in conjunction with the connectivity of units involved in achieving stereo vision.