Proximity, expectations, and attention but not necessarily physics determine perception for simultaneously viewed multiple bistable displays.
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When several multistable displays are viewed at the same time, typically, the same perceptual state tends to be dominant for all stimuli, and perceptual switches tend to occur at the same time (so-called perceptual coupling). We investigated whether this can be altered by an opportunity for a physical interaction between objects. We used a well established version of the walker-on-a-ball display plus a novel display consisting of two rotating gears. In the default configuration, perception for both displays was congruent with physically interacting objects. We gradually altered displays to produce either an abrupt change to the potential interaction (e.g., moving objects away from each other) or to keep it constant despite the visual changes (disambiguating one of the objects). We fit four models that assumed 1) independence of perception of the stimuli, 2) dependence on the stimulus’s properties, 3) dependence on physical configuration alone, and 4) an interaction between stimulus properties and a physical configuration. For the gears display, the perception depended on the stimulus properties, as in perceptual coupling, rather than on the possibility of physical interaction. Regarding the walker-on-the-ball, the perception depended neither on stimulus nor on the possibility of physical interaction but on whether participants were asked to respond on the relative motion of both objects or the absolute motion of the walker alone. This suggests that perception of the walker-on-a-ball was driven primarily by expectations. The results reveal multiple perceptual mechanisms acting at various levels of processing, whereas priors of physical interaction had little influence.
Recommended citation: Koßmann, L., Pastukhov, A. & Carbon, C.-C. (2021). Proximity, expectations, and attention but not necessarily physics determine perception for simultaneously viewed multiple bistable displays [Poster]. 43nd European Conference on Visual Perception (ECVP), Online.