Abstract
The perspective reversals elicited by a set of drawings based on the Mach truncated pyramid are examined. We obtained each pattern of the set from the previous one by adding to it some graphic cues, which were easily integrated into one of the two competing interpretations, thus reducing step by step the ambiguity of the basic pattern. The phenomenological model, proposed to link the mean times of both alternative interpretations with their complexities, is in close agreement with our experimental data. Furthermore, different aspects of such data are well described by the model equations: The measure of the prevalence of the supported interpretation is well correlated with the difference in complexity between the two alternative interpretations; the two different trends of the mean time of the unfavored interpretation, found in the data obtained from different observers as a function of the various patterns of the set, are well fitted by the model without the need for any specific additional hypothesis.
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This research was supported by the Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione and by the National Group of Cybernetics and Biophysics of the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche. We would like to thank M. Scotto for useful discussions and the two anonymous referees for their helpful comments. We are grateful to E. Gaggero for the design and realization of the tape-recording apparatus.
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Masulli, F., Riani, M. Ambiguity and structural information in the perception of reversible figures. Perception & Psychophysics 45, 501–513 (1989). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03208058
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03208058