Tactile facilitation of figure reversal in mental imagery

Abstract

In the first of three experiments, we found that 26% of our subjects reversed the mental image of Jastrow’s (1900) duck/rabbit figure. We speculated that the remaining 74% did not perform the reversal in imagination because they were unable to maintain an accurate image of the figure sufficiently long to allow for the reversal to occur. Therefore, in a second experiment, subjects attempted to reverse the memory image of the duck/rabbit, while simultaneously feeling an embossed version of the figure. This resulted in a 66% reversal rate, suggesting that the haptic form allowed for a greater number of reversals by preventing the mental image of the duck/rabbit from becoming distorted or decaying over time. Because a good portion of these reversals may have been tactual and not imaginai, a fragmented haptic form was used in a third experiment. A 50% reversal rate was obtained, even though this form could not be reversed by touch alone.