Journal
PLOS ONE
Volume 3, Issue 12, Pages -Publisher
PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0003982
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology (IRCSET)
- Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) [04/IN3/I568]
- Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) [04/IN3/I568] Funding Source: Science Foundation Ireland (SFI)
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Certain visual stimuli can give rise to contradictory perceptions. In this paper we examine the temporal dynamics of perceptual reversals experienced with biological motion, comparing these dynamics to those observed with other ambiguous structure from motion (SFM) stimuli. In our first experiment, naive observers monitored perceptual alternations with an ambiguous rotating walker, a figure that randomly alternates between walking in clockwise (CW) and counter-clockwise (CCW) directions. While the number of reported reversals varied between observers, the observed dynamics (distribution of dominance durations, CW/CCW proportions) were comparable to those experienced with an ambiguous kinetic depth cylinder. In a second experiment, we compared reversal profiles with rotating and standard point-light walkers (i.e. non-rotating). Over multiple test repetitions, three out of four observers experienced consistently shorter mean percept durations with the rotating walker, suggesting that the added rotational component may speed up reversal rates with biomotion. For both stimuli, the drift in alternation rate across trial and across repetition was minimal. In our final experiment, we investigated whether reversals with the rotating walker and a non-biological object with similar global dimensions (rotating cuboid) occur at random phases of the rotation cycle. We found evidence that some observers experience peaks in the distribution of response locations that are relatively stable across sessions. Using control data, we discuss the role of eye movements in the development of these reversal patterns, and the related role of exogenous stimulus characteristics. In summary, we have demonstrated that the temporal dynamics of reversal with biological motion are similar to other forms of ambiguous SFM. We conclude that perceptual switching with biological motion is a robust bistable phenomenon.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available