title: Reversing the attention effect in figure-ground perception.
abstract: Human visual perception is sometimes ambiguous, switching between different perceptual structures, and shifts of attention sometimes favor one perceptual structure over another. It has been proposed that, in figure-ground segmentation, attention to certain regions tends to cause those regions to be perceived as closer to the observer. Here, we show that this attention effect can be reversed under certain conditions. To account for these phenomena, we propose an alternative principle: The visual system chooses the interpretation that maximizes simplicity of the attended regions.
authors.affiliation: The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong, China. lqhuang@psy.cuhk.edu.hk
authors.forename: Liqiang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Harold
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Pashler
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D005364:Field Dependence-Independence; D006801:Humans; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*