Determination of perspective reversals

Abstract

MANY outline drawings of geometrical objects go through apparent reversals of perspective during prolonged viewing, and no adequate explanation for this is known¹. A classical explanation is that satiation or fatigue of the neural process which mediates the perception of one perspective leads to a replacement of the process by another one which has not been recently active^2–4. I tested the satiation theory by studying whether the apparent reversals of perspective can be determined by adaptation to an unambiguous perspective seen in a stereogram or in a three-dimensional object. Adaptation blocked temporarily the appearance of the corresponding perspective in a reversible perspective figure.