Ambiguous Figure Illusions: Do They Offer a Window On the Mind?

The Authors Views on Ambiguous Figures

Nathalia Gjersoe Is An Author Who Has Expressed Her Opinion On Pictures That Represent Multiple Meanings And The Name Of Her Article Is Ambiguous Figure Illusions: Do They Offer a Window On The Mind?  

Ambiguous images are also known as reversible figures which represent the single image into different modes due to which it’s very hard to determine the picture in a corrective manner. However, pictures can be interpreted in more than one way because several sensory and cognitive processes are engaged in explaining exactly how a similar image is going to be organized in multiple ways. These processes always work in both top-down and bottom-up ways for influencing what an individual has seen. Thus the main purpose of the study is to analyse the initial perspective of a person after seeing the “ambiguous figure”. This help the researcher in forecasting the psychology by considering several articles related to the illusion of ambiguous figures (Meeter, & Olivers, 2016). For example; 

Figure 1Ambiguous figure illusions: do they offer a window on the mind?

According to the opinion of the author, this above image is also known as “My wife and my Mother-in-law” which shows that the picture has been depicted in two different ways. One side of the figure highlights a new lady observing back over her shoulder whereas another side represents the profile of an elder lady who is looking down (Meng, & Tong, 2014). 

Therefore, overall research is going to be very interesting by covering a wide range of aspects related to human psychology upon single pictures with the help of suitable examples and authors too. Although, it’s not easy to identify the actual meaning of any figure different perspectives give a distinct mode of observing to a single thing. On the other hand, Jürgen Kornmeier and Michael Bach state in his article of Ambiguous figure that something is happening in the brain when opinion fluctuates but not stimulus. As per his viewpoint, while observing ambiguous figures an individual perspective reverses spontaneously whereas visual data stays unchanged or constant (Rock, Hall, & Davis, 2014).  He feels that the visual world is always stable and unambiguous as well as it seems as same as a person is seeing it. It shows that neuroscience considers this subject differently and consider fluctuation in brain system as a reason for psychological changes towards ambiguous figures. Furthermore, there is also a situation in which two images are shown and the question has been asked based on that such as; which picture you saw first.

According to the above representation, it has been assumed that two types of people are there because one might see the duck first whereas another will see the rabbit one because the rabbit is looking too cute and clear also. Apart from this, a number of a situation are present which is positively observed by one person whereas another takes it as a negative for him/her (Michael E. R. Nicholls, 2018).

The alternative one-tailed hypothesis states that mean score in prime condition will be significantly higher than mean score in control condition. Null hypothesis is that prime condition will be not significantly higher than control condition. However, the acceptance is made on the independent variable i.e.  "score" and dependent variable is " visual perception with to condition; prime an control

Hence, it's being very interesting for a researcher as well as the reader to acquire more or more information about the priming viewpoint of distinct people towards ambiguous images with the help of suitable or appropriate examples.  It has been considered that in order to identify the actual meaning of any figure different perspectives give a distinct mode of observing to a single thing. Therefore, it could be inferred that the main purpose of the study is to analyse the initial perspective of a person after seeing the “ambiguous figure.

References

Jürgen Kornmeier and Michael Bach, 2012. Ambiguous figures – what happens in the brain when perception changes but not the stimulus. [Online]. Available through< https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2012.00051/full >.

Nathalia Gjersoe, 2016. Ambiguous figure illusions: do they offer a window on the mind? [Online]. Available through<https://www.theguardian.com/science/head-quarters/2016/oct/03/ambiguous-figure-illusions-do-they-offer-a-window-on-the-mind >.

Michael E. R. Nicholls, 2018. Perception of an ambiguous figure is affected by own-age social biases. [Online]. Available through<https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-31129-7 >.

Meeter, M., & Olivers, C. N. (2016). Intertrial priming stemming from ambiguity: A new account of priming in visual search. Visual Cognition, 13(2), 202-222.

Meng, M., & Tong, F. (2014). Can attention selectively bias bistable perception? Differences between binocular rivalry and ambiguous figures. Journal of vision, 4(7), 2-2.

Rock, I., Hall, S., & Davis, J. (2014). Why do ambiguous figures reverse?. Acta psychologica, 87(1), 33-59.