Temporal dynamics of different cases of bi-stable figure–ground perception

• Rubin’s “face-or-vase” figure showed only weak stabilization.
• Kanizsa’s anomalous transparency figure showed strong stabilization.
• Large individual differences are found in temporal properties.

Segmentation of a visual scene in “figure” and “ground” is essential for perception of the three-dimensional layout of a scene. In cases of bi-stable perception, two distinct figure–ground interpretations alternate over time. We were interested in the temporal dynamics of these alternations, in particular when the same image is presented repeatedly, with short blank periods in-between. Surprisingly, we found that the intermittent presentation of Rubin’s classical “face-or-vase” figure, which is frequently taken as a standard case of bi-stable figure–ground perception, often evoked perceptual switches during the short presentations and stabilization was not prominent. Interestingly, bi-stable perception of Kanizsa’s anomalous transparency figure did strongly stabilize across blanks. We also found stabilization for the Necker cube, which we used for comparison. The degree of stabilization (and the lack of it) varied across stimuli and across individuals. Our results indicate, against common expectation, that the stabilization phenomenon cannot be generally evoked by intermittent presentation. We argue that top-down feedback factors such as familiarity, semantics, expectation, and perceptual bias contribute to the complex processes underlying the temporal dynamics of bi-stable figure–ground perception.