Abstract
During prolonged monocular observation from afar, an upright wire cube (Necker cube) or a drawing of such a cube inverts continuously so that the lower of the two frontal faces appears to be either in front (version A) or in back (version B). Version A is perceived as if it were viewed obliquely from above and version B as if seen from below. In our experiments, timing the durations of the versions showed that version A lasted longer than version B. When a wire cube was shifted upward so that it was actually viewed slightly from below, version B lasted longer than version A. The actual viewing direction was apparently taken into account by the subjects, which was not the case when the cube was replaced by a drawing showing the projection of the cube. In that case, version A always lasted longer, regardless of the actual viewing direction. This finding conforms with picture viewing in general, where a three-dimensional object’s orientation does not change when the observer’s viewing direction changes.
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This work was supported by Grant BSN-83 18772 from the National Science Foundation to Swarthmore College, Hans Wallach, principal investigator.
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Wallach, H., Slaughter, V. Viewing direction and pictorial representation. Perception & Psychophysics 43, 79–82 (1988). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03208976
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03208976