title: Ambiguous figures: role of context and critical features.
abstract: Context and attention to critical features as factors in determining the perceptual organization of ambiguous figures were investigated in the present two studies. In the first study, a fixation point directed attention to a critical or to a neutral feature of an ambiguous figure. Placement of the fixation point on different features of an ambiguous figure did not affect the figure-ground organization of the figure, but it did influence the speed of the identification response. In the second study, presentation of an ambiguous figure was preceded by a biased figure or by features of the figure. Results indicated that the interpretation of the ambiguous figure was overwhelmingly influenced by the advanced presentation of a biased drawing but only slightly influenced by the advanced presentation of a critical feature. These findings support analysis-by-synthesis (Neisser, 1967) as an explanation of the perception of ambiguous figures over other contemporary attention theories.
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005403:Fixation, Ocular; D005556:Form Perception; D006801:Humans; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011930:Reaction Time