SATIATION OR AVAILABILITY - EFFECTS OF ATTENTION, MEMORY, AND IMAGERYON THE PERCEPTION OF AMBIGUOUS FIGURES

The prolonged-inspection technique has been used to demonstrate effect s of satiation on the perception of ambiguous figures. We propose that the inspection phase, in which subjects view an unambiguous version o f the stimulus prior to observing the ambiguous figure, does not creat e neural fatigue but rather provides a context in which the alternativ e percept is apprehended and gains perceptual strength through process es such as imagination or memory. The consequent availability of the a lternative organization drives the perceptual phenomena that have been thought to reflect satiation. In Experiment 1, we demonstrated that ( 1) preexperimental exposure to the target figures and (2) allocation o f attention to the inspection figures were both necessary in order to obtain results similar to those predicted by the satiation model. In E xperiment 2, we obtained similar results, finding that effects of prio r inspection were greater the greater the amount and availability of i nformation regarding the alternative percept during the inspection pha se. Subjects who generated visual images of the noninspected alternati ve during inspection yielded results comparable to those from subjects to whom both versions were presented visually.